1) Women and
men enjoy many opportunities for service in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, both within local congregations and at the Churchwide level.
Latter-day Saint women preach sermons in Sunday meetings and the Church’s
general conference; serve full-time proselytizing missions; perform and
officiate in holy rites in the Church’s temples; and lead organizations that
minister to families, other women, young women, and children. They participate
in priesthood councils at the local and general levels. Professional women
teach Latter-day Saint history and theology at Church universities and in the
Church’s educational programs for youth. Because only men are ordained to
priesthood office, however, questions have arisen about women’s standing in the
Church.
2) The
restoration of priesthood authority through the Prophet Joseph Smith is a
fundamental doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Early
in his ministry, Joseph Smith received priesthood authority from heavenly
messengers; with that authority, he organized the Church, conferred priesthood
upon other men, and ordained them to offices in the priesthood. By this same
authority, Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society as part of the structure
of the Church, which formally defined and authorized a major aspect of women’s
ministry.
3) All this
was done to prepare the Saints to participate in the ordinances of the temple,
which were introduced soon after the founding of the Relief Society. At the
time of his death, the revelatory vision imparted to Joseph Smith was securely
in place: women and men could receive and administer sacred priesthood
ordinances in holy temples, which would help prepare them to enter the presence
of God.
4) In
the early 19th century, most Christians believed that the authority to act in
God’s name had remained on the earth since the time of Jesus' mortal ministry.
Joseph Smith taught that Christ’s priesthood was lost after the deaths of the
ancient apostles and had been newly restored through angelic ministration. Even
so, many Latter-day Saints initially understood the concept of priesthood
largely in terms common for the day. In 1830s America, the word priesthood was
defined as “the office or character of a priest” and “the order of men set
apart for sacred offices,” identifying priesthood with religious office and the
men who held it.
5) As
in most other Christian denominations during this era, Latter-day Saint men
alone held priesthood offices, served formal proselytizing missions, and
performed ordinances like baptism and blessing the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper. Unlike those in many other churches, Latter-day Saints extended
priesthood ordination broadly to laymen, as directed by revelation. Over time,
an extensive structure of priesthood offices and quorums was established. From
the beginning, this structure was governed by revelation under the direction of
priesthood leaders holding “keys.”
6) Latter-day
Saints’ understanding of the nature of priesthood and keys grew as a result of
revelations received by Joseph Smith. In 1836, angelic messengers
committed priesthood keys to Joseph Smith that would enable church members to
receive temple ordinances. In an 1841 revelation, the Lord commanded the
Saints to build a temple in Nauvoo, Illinois, where He would reveal to His
people “all things pertaining to this house, and the priesthood
thereof.” The culminating ordinances of the priesthood were to be found in
the temple and would help prepare men and women to enter into God’s presence.
7)
Latter-day Saint women in the Church’s earliest years, like women elsewhere,
participated actively in their new religious community. They ratified decisions
by voting in conferences; furnished the
temple with their handiwork; worshipped
alongside men in meetings and choirs; shared the gospel with relatives and
neighbors; hosted meetings in their
homes; and exercised spiritual gifts in
private and in public. Early revelation
authorized women to “expound scriptures, and to exhort the church.” Even so, like most other Christians in their
day, Latter-day Saints in the early years of the Church reserved public
preaching and leadership for men.
8) Revelatory
developments in Nauvoo afforded women new opportunities to participate in the
Church and expanded Latter-day Saints’ understanding of the eternal
relationship between men and women. The organization of the Female Relief
Society of Nauvoo on March 17, 1842, marked a significant step in these
developments. Wanting to provide charitable support to men working to build the
temple, a group of Mormon women planned to form a benevolent society, mirroring
a popular practice of the time. When they presented their plan to Joseph
Smith, he felt inspired to move beyond such precedents. As Sarah Granger
Kimball, a founding member of the Relief Society, later recalled, the Prophet
told them he had “something better” for them and said he would organize the
women “in the Order of the Priesthood after the pattern of the Church.”
The women named their new
organization “Relief Society.” It was unlike other women’s societies of the day
because it was established by a prophet who acted with priesthood authority to
give women authority, sacred responsibilities, and official positions within
the structure of the Church, not apart from it.
Joseph Smith charged the
women to “relieve the poor” and to “save souls.” He stated that his wife Emma
Hale Smith’s appointment as president of the Relief Society fulfilled a
revelation given to her twelve years earlier, in which she was called an “Elect
lady.” He also declared to the Society, “I now turn the key to you in the
name of God and this Society shall rejoice and knowledge and intelligence shall
flow down from this time.”
9) Two
aspects of Joseph Smith’s teachings to the women of the Relief Society may be
unfamiliar to members of the Church today. First is his use of language
associated with priesthood. In organizing the Relief Society, Joseph spoke of
“ordain[ing]” women and said that Relief Society officers would “preside over
the Society.” He also declared, “I now turn the key to you in the name of
God.”
These statements indicate
that Joseph Smith delegated priesthood authority to women in the Relief
Society. Joseph’s language can be more fully understood in historical
context. During the 19th century, Latter-day Saints used the term keys to refer
at various times to authority, knowledge, or temple ordinances. Likewise,
Mormons sometimes used the term ordain in a broad sense, often
interchangeably with set apart and not always referring to priesthood
office. On these points, Joseph’s actions illuminate the meaning of his
words: neither Joseph Smith, nor any acting on his behalf, nor any successors
conferred Priesthood on women or ordained women to priesthood office.
10) In later
years, words like ordination and keys were
more precisely defined, as when President John Taylor, who acted by assignment
from Joseph Smith to “ordain and set apart” Emma Smith and her counselors,
explained in 1880 that “the ordination then given did not mean the conferring
of the Priesthood upon those sisters.” By the time of President Taylor’s
statement, women-led organizations were also in place for young women and
children. These organizations also had presidencies, who acted with delegated
priesthood authority.
11) The
second aspect of Joseph Smith’s teachings to the Relief Society that may be
unfamiliar today is his endorsement of women’s participation in giving
blessings of healing. “Respecting the female laying on hands,” the Nauvoo
Relief Society minutes record, Joseph said that “it is no sin for anybody to do
it that has faith,” and admonished, “if the sisters should have faith to heal
the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let everything roll on.” Some
women had performed such blessings since the early days of the Church. At that
time, Latter-day Saints understood the gift of healing primarily in terms of
the New Testament’s teaching that it was one of the gifts of the Spirit
available to believers through faith. Joseph Smith taught that the gift of
healing was a sign that would follow “all that believe whether male or female.”
During the 19th century,
women frequently blessed the sick by the prayer of faith, and many women
received priesthood blessings promising that they would have the gift of
healing. “I have seen many demonstrations of the power and blessing of God
through the administration of the sisters,” testified Elizabeth Ann Smith
Whitney, who was, by her own account, blessed by Joseph Smith to exercise this
gift. In reference to these healing blessings, Relief Society general
president Eliza R. Snow explained in 1883, “Women can administer in the name of
JESUS, but not by virtue of the Priesthood.”
12) Women’s
participation in healing blessings gradually declined in the early 20th century as Church leaders taught that it was
preferable to follow the New Testament directive to “call for the elders.” By
1926, Church President Heber J. Grant affirmed that the First Presidency “do
not encourage calling in the sisters to administer to the sick, as the
scriptures tell us to call in the Elders, who hold the priesthood of God and
have the power and authority to administer to the sick in the name of Jesus
Christ.” Currently, the Church’s Handbook 2:
Administering the Church directs that “only Melchizedek Priesthood
holders may administer to the sick or afflicted.”
13) Joseph
Smith said that his instructions to the Relief Society were intended to prepare
women to “come in possession of the privileges & blessings & gifts of
the priesthood.” This would be accomplished through the ordinances of the
temple. These new ordinances taught the nature of God, the purpose of
life, the meaning of eternal life, and the nature of humankind’s relationship
to divinity. They brought men and women into a covenant relationship with God.
14) Joseph
Smith’s teachings about temple ordinances provide further context for his
priesthood-related teachings to the Relief Society. Joseph spoke of
establishing a “kingdom of priests.” This “kingdom of priests” would be
comprised of men and women who made temple covenants.
15) In the
last two years of his life, Joseph Smith introduced temple ordinances and
covenants to a core group of men and women. In May 1842, he officiated in the
first temple endowments—a ritual in which participants made sacred covenants
and received instruction regarding God’s plan of salvation. Joseph Smith
began sealing (or marrying for eternity) husbands and wives and then initiated
women into the endowment by the end of Sept. 1843. He taught men and women that
by receiving temple ordinances, culminating in the sealing ordinance, they
entered into an “order of the priesthood.” By the time of his death, he
had given these ordinances to several dozen men and women, who met together
often to pray and to participate in temple ceremonies as they awaited
completion of the Nauvoo Temple in December 1845.
16) Temple
ordinances were priesthood ordinances, but they did not bestow ecclesiastical
office on men or women. They fulfilled the Lord’s promise that his people—women
and men—would be “endowed with power from on high.” That priesthood power
was manifest in individuals’ lives in many ways and was available to adult
members, regardless of marital status. The endowment opened channels of
personal revelation to both women and men. It bestowed a greater measure of
“faith and knowledge” and the “help of the Spirit of the Lord”—power that
fortified the Saints for subsequent hardships they would face as they traveled
to Salt Lake Valley. It prepared endowed Latter-day Saints to go forth
“armed with thy [God’s] power” to “bear exceedingly great and glorious tidings
… unto the ends of the earth.” Indeed, through the ordinances of the
temple, the power of godliness was manifest in their lives.
17) These
revelations& ordinances imparted new understanding of the interdependent
relationship of women &men. As Bishop Newel K. Whitney expressed it shortly
after receiving his endowment, “Without the female all things cannot be
restor’d to the earth. It takes all to restore the Priesthood.” Mary I Horne, a
member of the Nauvoo Relief Society, later expressed joy in being “co-laborers
with our brethren in building up the kingdom of God.” “In all the ordinances
received in the House of the Lord,” “woman stands beside the man, both for the
living and the dead, showing that the man is not without the woman nor the
woman without the man in the Lord.”
18) The
priesthood power bestowed in the Nauvoo Temple—& by extension, in temples
today—extends beyond this life, for temple ordinances make possible the
exaltation of God’s children. The ordinances of the temple, Joseph Smith
taught, would create a “welding link” between all members of the human family,
one family at a time, extending backward &forward in time. When a man &
woman are sealed in the temple, they enter together, by covenant, into an order
of the priesthood. If they are faithful to their covenants, they receive
“honor, immortality, & eternal life,” “exaltation & glory in all
things,” &a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever &
ever.”
19) In some
respects, the relationship between LDS women and priesthood has remained
remarkably constant since Joseph Smith’s day. As in the earliest days of the
Church, men are ordained to priesthood offices, while both women and men are
invited to experience the power and blessings of the priesthood in their lives. Men and women continue to officiate in sacred
ordinances in temples much as they did in Joseph Smith’s day. Joseph taught
that men and women can obtain the highest degree of celestial glory only by
entering together into an order of the priesthood through the temple sealing
ordinance. That understanding remains with Latter-day Saints today.
20) The
priesthood authority exercised by LDS women in the temple and elsewhere remains
largely unrecognized by people outside the Church and sometimes by those
within. LDS & others often mistakenly equate priesthood with religious
office & the men who hold it, which obscures the broader Latter-day Saint
concept of priesthood. Church prophets, exercising the keys of the priesthood,
have adapted structures & programs in a world in which opportunities have
expanded for many women. Today, Latter-day Saint women lead three
organizations within the Church: the Relief Society, the Young Women, and the
Primary. They preach and pray in congregations, fill numerous positions of
leadership and service, participate in priesthood councils at the local and
general levels, and serve formal proselytizing missions across the globe. In
these and other ways, women exercise priesthood authority even though they are
not ordained to priesthood office. Such service and leadership would require
ordination in many other religious traditions. Interdependence of men and women
in accomplishing God’s work through His power is central to the gospel of Jesus
Christ restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
