The latest updates to General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include guidance about the new Sunday meeting schedule and teacher council meetings, adding the Young Women age-group names, giving clarification about certain sealings, providing more information about disability specialists, and revising military relations and chaplains.
The updates were announced in an Oct. 22 news release posted on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and in a notice sent to Church leaders. The notice explained that as directed by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the General Handbook continues to be updated as needed to provide ministerial guidance, clarity and inspiration to local leaders.
The updates will appear in the Gospel Library app in the next 24 to 48 hours, explained the Church’s news release.
Some of the updates in the latest release are listed below.
- Throughout the handbook, many instances of “the United States and Canada” have been changed to “the United States” only. The Canada Area now has its own area office.
- Updated guidance throughout the handbook to reflect the new Sunday meeting schedule announced in March 2026.
- Throughout the handbook, Young Women “classes” have been updated to “age-groups,” and names of Young Women age-groups have been updated to reflect changes announced in April 2026 (see 11.1 and 11.2).
- Wards and stakes are given the option to hold children’s devotionals (see 12.2.1.3).
- Guidance has been updated on teacher council meetings and teacher council meetings for parents (see 13.4, 13.5, 17.4, and 17.5).
- Guidance has been clarified and added about members attending sealings of living siblings and parents (see 26.1, 26.3.3, 27.1.2, 27.2.3.2, 27.3.4, and 27.4.6).
- The responsibilities of disability specialists have been updated (see 38.8.28.9), and the responsibilities of ward leaders now include supporting the needs of members with disabilities.
- The handbook section “Military Relations and Chaplain Services” has been divided into two new sections with revised information (see 38.9 “Chaplains” and 38.10 “Military Relations”).
More details about these and other updates are listed in the “Summary of Recent Updates” at the beginning of the handbook.
These are the handbook’s first published updates since March 2026.
