SALON

Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013 8:47 PM UTC

Mormons finally “let women pray”

An activist movement has prompted the church to finally allow a woman to offer invocation at its general conference

By

Topics: Religion Dispatches, Mormon Church, Church of Latter-day Saints, women, Gender Equality, ,

Mormons finally (Credit: Shutterstock/braedostok)
This article originally appeared on Religion Dispatches.

Religion Dispatches

Sources inside the LDS Church say that a woman will for the first time in the history of Mormonism offer an invocation or benediction at the Church’s worldwide General Conference, this April 6–7, veteran religion journalist Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

The announcement comes after Mormon feminists and their allies mounted a “Let Women Pray” letter-writing campaign this winter. (LDS officials say that the Conference program was set “many weeks ago.”)

Women’s advocates within the LDS Church like LDS WAVE have long pointed to the continuing restriction on women praying in the Church’s global meetings as one of many examples of day-to-day gender inequalities in the practice of Mormonism—most of them having absolutely no foundation in current Church teachings.

There is no foundation in LDS doctrine, theology, or scripture for restricting women from praying in public or at church meetings. Still, women have been excluded by policy and custom from pulpit prayer at times throughout LDS history.

During the 1970s, women were not permitted to offer invocations or benedictions during weekly congregational church services, a restriction that was lifted in September 1978.

Other non-doctrinal policy restrictions on women’s full participation in LDS Church life and leadership remain, including the exclusion of women from serving as financial or membership clerks in local congregations or participating as Church officers in broader Church budget and financial deliberations. Historic barriers to full participation include the exclusion of women from service as the presidents of Church-owned universities.  And gender inequalities continue in other dimensions of LDS life, including policies that permit living men to be “sealed” by LDS temple marriage to more than one spouse, while living women may be “sealed” to only one man.

Joanna Brooks, named one of “50 Politicos to Watch,” is the author of The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith and a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches. More Joanna Brooks.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 6 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from Religion Dispatches, a daily online magazine that publishes a mix of expert opinion, in-depth reporting, and provocative updates from the intersection of religion, politics and culture.


follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations