As far as I know, we don’t sustain these women, and they are not introduced at the Relief Society General Meeting, and the only place a normal member of the church like me ever sees their service mentioned is in a random obituary.

I just googled “Relief Society General Board” and see that these women are listed on the Church website with pictures. Is that a new innovation, or have I just never looked?

Perhaps they’re mentioned in the Church News, but after subscribing to that briefly, I stopped taking it due to some of the peculiar content of the included “Mormon Times.”

Oh my. This comment has been rather tangential. I’m not sure what point I’m trying to make. No complaint, just wondering aloud about a cultural blind spot I just noticed.

The note from “Anon this Time” that sparked this post made it clear that she didn’t need to hold the priesthood in the same sense that her husband does, and she didn’t need to be “in charge” to feel valued, and I don’t think she was seeking, and I know *I* am not seeking, anything that would blur the distinction between ordination and non-ordination. Rather, I’m noting that women, through the RS (and youth and children through their programs) are real auxiliaries to the priesthood — those organizations and the people who are part of them provide supplementary or additional help to the priesthood organization to carry out priesthood responsibilities. Individual women may and should do what they can to enable the men in their lives to carry out their individual responsibilities. But women’s support of the priesthood doesn’t end there — we are also being supportive when we carry out any service that helps further the work of the priesthood.

I like your ward member’s recognition of his wife’s skills and talents, David. I hope the rest of the ward also recognizes that the RS president is helping the bishop, especially, but every other priesthood holder in the ward, too, by helping the ward to function, by strengthening families through relieving their wants, by helping the bishop know what is needed within his ward, and by suggesting and carrying out ideas to do what is needed. *That’s* supporting the priesthood in a very direct and real way. Members of the RS who are not officers, but who assist the president and fill their own ward assignments, are also supporting the priesthood in recognizable ways. I think if more women took that point of view, and if more men acknowledged women’s roles in helping the priesthood fill its duties that way, then we’d have fewer discouraged RS class members, and fewer sisters like me who feel marginalized because we aren’t seen as supporting the priesthood when we have no men in our lives.

I especially appreciate the quote form Sis Beck. “we have and live with an inseparable connection to the priesthood.”

Does Relief Society ever mention that a man cannot be called as bishop (for example) if he is single, and his wife is always set apart as well? Or that priesthood ordinances in the temple are officiated by women? Or the valuable role sisters play in missionary work? To me, equating homemaking with priesthood is not only demeaning, but dismisses the serious, sacred, and very real roles that women fill that really do use the priesthood.

I admire the work done in the post and think everything is correct. Still, to me, at some point, discussion of a woman’s duty toward and participation in the mission of the priesthood becomes so attenuated that it begins to describe the basic duty of any (and every) member of the church, male or female. In other words, if we cast the net wide enough, we end up picking up all members of the Church, and then I wonder what’s the point of trying to make priesthood holder vs. non-priesthood holder distinctions?

Rather, couldn’t we focus on identifying and finding practical ways to actually include everyone in the mission of the Church/the Priesthood? For example, our Stake has begun sending out members of the Auxiliary presidencies with the High Councillors on their speaking assignments. Yesterday, for High Council Sunday, our Ward was addressed by two Stake leaders; we heard first from a (female) Stake Primary Presidency member, and then a High Councilman. I thought this idea was novel, yes, but more important than the novelty, it felt fundamentally right and seemed so obvious I’m surprised we hadn’t done this before.

I have to know that I have been created because I deserve to live, not just because a few men need me. But that’s hard when it all starts with Eve being created because the first man needed someone. That’s another gap that faith can fill until you get a stronger testimony.

The trick for the men is to realize that some of the time, when they put womanhood on a pedestal, it’s not the one we want to be on. And we have to remember than men want to be needed, too.

I would, however, as always, appreciate a wider application of these principles than is usually included even in such positive Church materials, even from Sister Beck. This line: “And I will say the priesthood duty of sisters is to create life, to nurture it, to prepare it for covenants of the Lord” doesn’t go far enough in describing women’s connection to the priesthood. I can’t create life, and my power or opportunities to “nurture it, to prepare it for covenants” is vanishingly small. What little opportunities are available to me as an aunt, a teacher, a friend, are so miniscule as to give almost no meaning to life. I don’t believe God created me to have no purpose in mortality. Not to recognize that I, like all women, can and do promote the priesthood purposes of God through activity in the Church and in the world, in addition to or even in place of female biological function, is to put a stamp of meaninglessness, worthlessness, pointlessness on our lives. That, as my friend said, is discouraging. I have to go beyond the rhetoric of birthing and nurturing for there to be any point to my life.

And I a honored that you call me “friend”.

[Fixed by adding a space -- I'm leaving this comment for the information of other readers who've faced that problem. -- AEP]

“I’ve learned through studying the history of Relief Society that we have and live with an inseparable connection to the priesthood. The Prophet Joseph Smith put the sisters in the position to receive all the gifts, blessings, and privileges of the priesthood. We need never confuse the idea of those who hold the priesthood in trust, with the priesthood. The priesthood is God’s power. It is His power to create, to bless, to lead, to serve as He does. The priesthood duty of every righteous man is to qualify for the blessing of holding that priesthood and trust for the Lord so that he can bless his family and those around him. And I will say the priesthood duty of sisters is to create life, to nurture it, to prepare it for covenants of the Lord. Don’t confuse the power with the keys and the offices of the priesthood. God’s power is limitless and it is shared with those who make and keep covenants. Too much is said and misunderstood about what the brothers have and the sisters don’t have. This is Satan’s way of confusing both men and women so neither understands what they really have. Sisters and brothers each have every ordinance, every gift, and every blessing available to them to get back to our Father in Heaven, and no one, male or female, is left outside of those blessings to qualify for exaltation. There is a unity in the council and the covenant that is required us to get there. Neither the man nor the woman can ascend without the other. We are inseparably connected in that way. And I understand how special women are. I understand how special men are. And together we’re more special. We become what the Lord wants us to become.” (page 8 )

and then this from pages 9-10 “Mine is a home where every hour is blessed by the strength of priesthood power. That is your responsibility, sisters, to help your home be a home that is blessed every hour by priesthood power. It isn’t just when Dad is there. It’s not just when Mom is there. It’s not just when a priesthood ordinance or blessing is being performed. It’s every hour as ordinances, as covenants, are made and kept.”

I especially love that last line. When we are keeping our covenants, whether single or married, part-member family or active then the power of the priesthood is there in our home.