Alternatives

Fiona Givens, has written a fantastic post about how the LDS priesthood and the ministry of women in the church were originally intended to complement each other and exist as independent, equal branches of the priesthood. She writes in response to the idea that the only way that there can be gender equality within in the church is if women are ordained. "I want to suggest to those who agitate for change that, while I respect their choice, there may be alternatives to the stark deprivation vs. equality rhetoric than sometimes accompanies their world-view. "

My favorite excerpt suggests a return to some of the original duties given to women in the church:
"Together with the restoration to parallel but equal standing in the priesthood, we might hope to one day see returned the Temple priesthood powers to offer healing blessings and other blessings in behalf of family members and all those who fall within the purview of the Relief Society Priesthood, which would be a great boon to those sisters, for whom the responsibility for raising their families in the Gospel rests squarely and unrelentingly on their shoulders.  Perhaps someday we might see the stewardship returned to the Relief Society Presidency for the disbursement of funds for its own organization and that of her auxiliaries. With luck, so too will The Relief Society and auxiliaries once again have the oversight for the writing and distribution of RS, YW and Primary manuals.  And maybe the future will see the mandate given to Emma “to make a selection of sacred hymns” for the edification of the global church and the “delight” of the Lord restored to the purview of the Relief Society18."

 Read it HERE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photos of Mormon women leaders in Conference Center

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/57702450-180/leaders-women-church-center.html.csp Check this out! My favorite part: "Conversations about giving more visibility to women have been going on for some years," LDS spokeswomen Jessica Moody said in a statement. "The decision to have the sister leaders of the church be more visible in the Conference Center is just one outcome of those conversations." Woohoo!
Read more

ValHud to the Rescue!

MAN, I love her! Cannot get enough of her in my life! So you can imagine my delight and excitement when I received my April 2013 Ensign and on page 19 was a SIX PAGE feature article written by Mrs. Valerie M. Hudson and Richard B. Miller. I did notice and find it slightly amusing that she chose not to use her usually hyphenated name for this article. That might scare away some of the more traditional members, I suppose. Haha! Ok, I'm way too excited about this. But have you read this article?!  Entitled, Equal Partnership in Marriage and written by my oh-so-most-favorite MoFem ever! Here are some highlights: "In some cultures, tradition places a man in a role to dominate, control and regulate all family affairs. That is not the way of the Lord. In some places the wife is almost owned by her husband, as if she were another of his personal possessions. That is a cruel, mistaken vision of marriage encouraged by Lucifer that EVERY PRIESTHOOD HOLDER MUST REJECT." "
Read more

Attaining, Accessing, Using Priesthood Power

THIS TALK   was given by David Clare at the last BYU Women' Conference. Interesting topic for an address given to women, right? Well, he sort of expands upon Elder Oaks' recent GC statement that actually, women DO have priesthood power and authority. I think it is so interesting how leaders are now talking about the ways that women do have access to the priesthood. Elder Ballard's recent quote, "When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is by definition priesthood power," and Elder Oaks talk are some remarkable examples. What I don't understand is how the argument that men are supposed to preside over women by divine mandate then holds up. I thought the argument used to go like this, "Men preside in their homes and in the church because they are priesthood holders." But now we're saying that women have the priesthood too... sorta. So it must be something else... keys! Men hold priesthood keys. That&
Read more