Posted by OrdainWomen on Mar 9, 2018 in Actions, Blog |

Lorie Winder Stromberg serves on the Ordain Women executive board as chair of the Long-term Planning Committee.

When we launched Ordain Women on March 17, 2013, the seeds for a wider discussion on the topic of women’s ordination already had been planted: The “All Are Alike unto God” document, calling on general church leaders to thoughtfully consider and earnestly pray about the question of women’s ordination, had been sent to church leaders and several hundred women and men had signed in support of it; Mormon blogs, such as Exponent, Feminist Mormon Housewives, Times and Seasons, Patheos and Zehepholod’s Daughters, had begun to address the issue more frequently. Ordain Women’s actions amplified these and other Mormon feminist initiatives, igniting several institutional responses that we hope will facilitate the eventual ordination of women.

As we mark Ordain Women’s 5th birthday, we thought we’d outline some of these policy changes and rhetorical shifts. Obviously, we still have work to do, but it’s clear, particularly from the shifts in discourse, that the question of women’s ordination isn’t going away.

Policy Changes

The announcement that the Priesthood Session of General Conference would be live-streamed enabled all to view it regardless of gender

There is a much greater emphasis on gender-inclusive local councils

Photos of members of the general Relief Society presidency were added to the photos of male general church leaders on the semi-annual leadership chart in the Ensign and on the walls of the Conference Center

Church leaders lowered the age requirement for female missionaries so that it is closer to that of male missionaries, and created greater leadership opportunities for women on missions

Women were finally allowed to offer prayers in general conference sessions

The general women’s meeting was gradually elevated to conference session status, first, by the announcement that, like the priesthood session, there would be two general women’s meetings per year, followed months later by the announcement that the general women’s meeting would be considered a session of the LDS semi-annual conference, and, finally, the announcement last year that the general women’s meeting and general priesthood meeting would each occur once per year at alternating semi-annual conferences

Women employed by the LDS Church were given benefits packages that included paid maternity leave

The dress code for female employees of the church was changed to allow women to wear dress slacks and pantsuits

Shifts in Church Discourse

Crucial questions about women and priesthood are being asked more broadly and more frequently. Former Relief Society General President Linda K. Burton, speaking at the BYU Women’s Conference on May 2, 2013, said, “We rejoice that we are privileged to live in this season of the history of the Church when questions are being asked about the priesthood. There is great interest and desire to know and understand more about the authority, power, and blessings associated with the priesthood of God.”

Church leaders are openly admitting that people are struggling with—or at least, perplexed by—the question of why only men hold the priesthood. Many, like Elder Andersen and Elder Ballard as well as Sherri Dew, admit they ultimately don’t know why men have the priesthood and women don’t. In the October 2013 general conference, Elder Neil L. Andersen answered the question, “Why are the ordinances of the priesthood administered by men?” by citing 1 Nephi 11: 17 : “I do not know the meaning of all things.” Elder M. Russell Ballard, speaking at BYU’s 2013 Campus Education Week Devotional, asked, “Why are men ordained to priesthood offices and not women?” His answer: “When all is said and done, the Lord has not revealed why…” Similarly, Sherri Dew, in her book Women and the Priesthood, writes: “Why aren’t women eligible for priesthood ordination …? . . . [W]e don’t know.” (106)

: “I do not know the meaning of all things.” Elder M. Russell Ballard, speaking at BYU’s 2013 Campus Education Week Devotional, asked, “Why are men ordained to priesthood offices and not women?” His answer: “When all is said and done, the Lord has not revealed why…” Similarly, Sherri Dew, in her book Women and the Priesthood, writes: “Why aren’t women eligible for priesthood ordination …? . . . [W]e don’t know.” (106) Priesthood and maleness are no longer synonymous. In the last 5 years, Church leaders, including Elders Andersen, Ballard and Oaks, have clearly stated that men are not the priesthood. Uncoupling priesthood from maleness and recognizing that it is a power that is not gendered is an essential step in extending full priesthood authority to all worthy adult members of the Church.

Before Elder Oaks’ April 2014 priesthood session talk, some Church leaders seemed to be abandoning the “men have priesthood; women have motherhood” parallel. Even institutional spokeswoman Sherri Dew suggested that there were problems with the priesthood/motherhood equation. Though there are a few holdouts, using motherhood to justify an all-male priesthood appears to be on the wane, though separate but equal, complementarian rhetoric still holds sway.

The terms priesthood blessings, power, authority, office, and keys are being parsed and distinctions are drawn in ways still shy of universal ordination but that attempt to be more inclusive of women. Late 20th-century Church discourse responded to the women’s movement primarily by asserting that, though only men were ordained, both men and women enjoyed the blessings of the priesthood. Recently, leaders have asserted that women can access both the blessings and the power of the priesthood.

In her review of Dew’s book, Valerie Hudson wrote: “Dew’s greatest contribution in this book … is her assertion that endowed women possess Godly power, or priesthood power. (103) She [Dew] begins with a statement by … Ballard that in the temple, both men and women are ‘endowed with the same power, which by definition is priesthood power.’ (105) [This was reiterated in Elder Dallin Oak’s April 2014 priesthood session talk.] Dew goes on to state that once endowed, a woman has ‘direct access to priesthood power for her own life and responsibilities.’ (114) … Priesthood power . . . is the power of God Himself available to men and women alike . . . who have been endowed in the house of the Lord (122) . . . men and women who are endowed in the house of the Lord have been given a gift of power, and they have been given a gift of knowledge to know how to access and use that power.’”(125)“This,” says Hudson, “is really a very remarkable assertion. The formula has always been that women are the beneficiaries of priesthood power, and so only ‘share’ it vicariously by being married to a man. … But Dew is plainly saying that endowed women have been given priesthood power in the temple, which power they can use to benefit others. In other words, for the first time, it is being articulated that women are not simply passive recipients of divine power that has been coded male, but are able to hold and use divine power as agents without a male intermediary.”

Increasingly, a distinction is being made between the authority and the power of the priesthood. Authority and power traditionally have been associated with office and, thus, available only to men. Power now seems to be available to all, although what that means is not well developed.

In his April 2014 priesthood session talk, Elder Oaks went further and asserted that women not only enjoy the blessings and the power of the priesthood, they also exercise its authority in their callings. In the institutional Church, “priesthood authority is governed by priesthood holders who hold priesthood keys, and … all that is done under the direction of those priesthood keys is done with priesthood authority.”

While women do not currently hold priesthood keys and office, Elder Oaks asserted that both women and men are recognized as having “the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings.” He continued: “We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?” asked Elder Oaks. “When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.”

For more information on these changes and their sources see:

Lorie Winder Stromberg, “The Birth of Ordain Women: The Personal Becomes Political,” in Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism, Gordon Shepherd, Lavina Fielding Anderson, and Gary Shepherd, eds., Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2015, 23-26.