All the recent modifications were made in the ''endowment'' ceremony, a ritual considered essential to assure Mormons of life after death. Mormons participate in the rite only once on their own behalf, usually as young adults who are about to do missionary work or be married. But they may repeat the ritual any number of times on behalf of their ancestors.

Participants follow a dramatic reenactment, once performed by actors but now presented in most temples by films, of the Creation, life on earth and a return to God. The ceremony also contains elements resembling the Masonic rituals current in 1830, when Joseph Smith founded the church on the basis of revelations that he said he received in upstate New York.

The latest revisions diminish these elements, including gestures symbolizing the participant's pledge to undergo a gruesome death rather than reveal the rituals. Also dropped is a scene in which Satan hires a non-Mormon ''preacher'' to spread false teachings.

The rituals have been changed before. In 1927, an oath to avenge Smith's death was dropped. Smith was killed in 1844 after he and his followers had been forced to migrate first to Missouri and then to Illinois.

Brigham Young led the church's members to establish a new community in Utah, although a minority established the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which does not share the same rituals, in Independence, Mo.

''The language and whole framework of the endowment ceremony seemed to me very reflective of the 19th century,'' said a Mormon woman from the New York City area who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

''The stuff about the preacher didn't trouble me so much, because I thought, well, it just reflected a past time and that's how people thought then,'' said the woman, who described the ceremony as moving. ''The same with the women stuff. Like any other ritual, you make it your own.''