Oaks Presides Over Easter Conference Focused on Christ's Divine Names

The 196th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints concluded Sunday with a clear institutional message: the titles and names of Jesus Christ are not devotional decoration but the operational vocabulary of modern discipleship.

President Dallin H. Oaks, presiding over his first full General Conference as the church's 18th president, set the tone with a call to peacemaking drawn explicitly from the Sermon on the Mount. "As followers of Christ, let us follow Him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers," Oaks said, also urging "fairness for all" in democratic governance. The pairing was deliberate: who Christ is, and how his followers should behave in public life.

The two-day conference, held April 4 and 5 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, opened Saturday with a solemn assembly, a formal congregation-wide vote to sustain Oaks as prophet alongside the newly constituted First Presidency. President Henry B. Eyring was sustained as first counselor and President D. Todd Christofferson as second counselor, with President Dieter F. Uchtdorf serving as acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The vote formalized a transition that began with the death of President Russell M. Nelson on September 27, 2025, at age 101, one week before the October 2025 General Conference. The Quorum of the Twelve led the church for 17 days before Oaks' ordination as the 18th president.

Against that backdrop of institutional change, the Easter weekend setting gave church leaders a coherent theological frame. Rather than concentrating the theme in a single keynote, the focus on Christ's divine names spread across multiple sessions. Titles including "True Vine," "Repairer," "Author and Finisher" of faith, "the Way," and "Personal Guide" recurred through Saturday and Sunday, each linking a scriptural identity of Christ to a practical call for how members should orient their lives. The strategy reflected a deliberate sequencing: establish who Christ is before asking his followers to represent him.

Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles anchored the Saturday afternoon session with a talk on Jesus Christ as the True Vine, addressing Christ's "I Am" declarations as among the Savior's most profound self-identifications. "Remaining connected to the True Vine is not merely desirable; it is essential," Soares said. Elder Aaron T. Hall, a General Authority Seventy, extended that reasoning in his Sunday afternoon talk, "I Glory in My Jesus": "Reflect on the meaning of His divine names, and let Him restore peace to your soul." Elder Clement M. Matswagothata, also a General Authority Seventy, reinforced the relational dimension in his talk "He Knows You by Name," stating: "Not only does the Savior know you, but He also wants you to come to know Him and His Father." Elder Brian J. Holmes addressed the same cluster of ideas in "Jesus Christ Is the Way."

President Christofferson delivered a Sunday afternoon address on "The Character of Christ." President Uchtdorf urged members in the Sunday morning session: "We must encounter the empty tomb." Elder Gary E. Stevenson offered the global frame: "We are all one family. We all need help along the way."

The conference also announced eight new General Authority Seventies and a reorganized Primary General Presidency. President Susan H. Porter was sustained as president, with Theresa A. Collins named incoming second counselor.

A Palm Sunday satellite broadcast on March 29 preceded the main sessions, extending the Easter arc across the full scope of Holy Week. The practical theology Oaks and his colleagues delivered this weekend holds that discipleship begins not with abstract doctrine but with a name.