Women & the Priesthood

[Colly Wolly]

I'm trying to wrap my brain around what life in the Church will become like once this is a reality. Obviously, the responsibilities of the Priesthood are broad and far-reaching, and encompass much more than I can come up with in the below list. That said, I'm going to take an initial stab at it.

- No more Relief Society meetings. Everyone is together for the last two hours of Church. Maybe they can shorten the meetings by a half hour or so. That would be nice.

- Visiting Teaching is abolished. Husbands and wives are hometeaching companions. Babysitters will be required when a couple goes out to visit families. Singles are paired up as home teaching companions with one woman and one man as much as possible. Visits for these companions are considered Church-sponsored "dates".

- Husband and wife flip a coin or alternate for performing of ordinances on the kids. If the mom baptizes, the dad confirms. Flip a coin for who gets to take who through the veil.(*edit, this is for when a couple is getting married, not with the kids). Same for blessing kids when sick. This will be very nice as I won't have to call someone to come over to help me administer to my kids any more.

- Young women and young men rotate administering the sacrament on a monthly basis. The young women are much more pious and reverent when it is their turn. Or they could just blend it all together and have them administer together. This could get ugly on the deacon's bench though, as we know how well 12 and 13 year old boys and girls mix.

- I'd imagine we would need to give the women gender based names for priesthood offices. How about Deaconettes, Teachers, Priestesses, (drawing a blank for the female equivalent of elder), and High Priestesses.

Any other thoughts on how this would go down?

[Colly Wolly]

- No more double-standard on the mission thing. Lots more women missionaries. They go out at 19 just like the elders.

[wuapinmon]

An old apocryphal anecdote.

Somewhere, usually told as South America, a general authority stopped in to a small branch to find a sister preparing the Sacrament. The GA calls over the BP and tells him that only priesthood holders are allowed to prepare the Sacrament.

Some time later, the GA comes back through the branch, running late, comes upon the same sister kneeling and blessing the Sacrament. After the meeting, the GA asks the BP, "I thought I explained to you that only priesthood holders are allowed to prepare or bless the Sacrament," to which the BP replies, "No problem, we ordained her a priest."

[KillerDog]

Female Elder ... "eldress" in the alternative "old woman" or "hag."

[Colly Wolly]

Female Elder ... "eldress" in the alternative "old woman" or "hag."

Yes.

[TripletDaddy]

Yes. One difference:

SET UP YOUR OWN DAMN CHAIRS! THEY ARE NOT THAT HEAVY! IT'S A FOLDING CHAIR, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!

[wuapinmon]

In Spanish we used to joke that the priesthood (sacerdocio) didn't get nearly half as much accomplished at the RS....we called them the mujerdocio.

[The Wankster]

I'm trying to wrap my brain around what life in the Church will become like once this is a reality. Obviously, the responsibilities of the Priesthood are broad and far-reaching, and encompass much more than I can come up with in the below list. That said, I'm going to take an initial stab at it.

- No more Relief Society meetings. Everyone is together for the last two hours of Church. Maybe they can shorten the meetings by a half hour or so. That would be nice.

- Visiting Teaching is abolished. Husbands and wives are hometeaching companions. Babysitters will be required when a couple goes out to visit families. Singles are paired up as home teaching companions with one woman and one man as much as possible. Visits for these companions are considered Church-sponsored "dates".

- Husband and wife flip a coin or alternate for performing of ordinances on the kids. If the mom baptizes, the dad confirms. Flip a coin for who gets to take who through the veil.(*edit, this is for when a couple is getting married, not with the kids). Same for blessing kids when sick. This will be very nice as I won't have to call someone to come over to help me administer to my kids any more.

- Young women and young men rotate administering the sacrament on a monthly basis. The young women are much more pious and reverent when it is their turn. Or they could just blend it all together and have them administer together. This could get ugly on the deacon's bench though, as we know how well 12 and 13 year old boys and girls mix.

- I'd imagine we would need to give the women gender based names for priesthood offices. How about Deaconettes, Teachers, Priestesses, (drawing a blank for the female equivalent of elder), and High Priestesses.

Any other thoughts on how this would go down?

Don't hurt yourself wrapping this one around too tightly, I don't think it's something you are likely to see anytime soon, if ever.

Remember that most in here believe the church is very much against giving the women any legs to stand on, therefore it would stand to reason that there is two possibilities for women getting the priesthood: None, and no way in hell.

Carry on.......

[Pelado]

Sheri Dew wrote the book on this topic...and it's on sale now at the BYU Bookstore:

9781609077860.jpg

http://www.byubookstore.com/ePOS?for...eid=9d9b6f0822

[Jeff Lebowski]

Sheri Dew wrote the book on this topic...and it's on sale now at the BYU Bookstore:

Good old Sheri Dew. Rarely misses an opportunity to cash in.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Good old Sheri Dew. Rarely misses an opportunity to cash in.

She's like an apostle without the priesthood!

[Sullyute]

She's like an apostle without the priesthood!

[DrumNFeather]

"A Great Holiday Gift for the Woman who has Everything (but the priesthood)"

[Uncle Ted]

Sheri Dew wrote the book on this topic...and it's on sale now at the BYU Bookstore:



http://www.byubookstore.com/ePOS?for...eid=9d9b6f0822

Let the reviews begin...

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/758747678

[...]
I will attempt to summarize the whole of Sheri Dew's book in a paragraph: She doesn't understand why people think women don't have anything to do in the church: LOOK! We pray and speak and lead our own organizations! The doctrine of Jesus Christ holds equality in women and men, but quit trying to be treated the same! If you understand who you are as a daughter of God you will stop being confused!! Be rooted in the gospel and quit worrying about these things, or else your roots will be weak! If you understand the plan of Salvation, you understand that women are to have children and men are to have the priesthood. We don't know why, we accept it with faith. We have our gender roles and that's what we're supposed to do. And Christ is at the head of the Church so STOP questioning it! I will provide no discussion at all about the mistakes and infallibility of human leaders of our church. Quit asking for the priesthood, we are already doing a lot: we are praying and leading organizations and teaching and stuff - and some churches don't let you even do that. So why are we complaining again? We are so vital to the work. We have all the access to every blessing the Lord has promised us. She has access to priesthood power as a single, endowed woman in her home, please stop telling her she doesn't. As for women having power in the early days of the church to lay on of hands, well, it's likely it all could have just been a mistake - or we were doing it wrong until we locked that practice up exclusively in the temple. She explains in a really awesome way the difference between keys, authority, and the power of the priesthood. We don't talk about Mother in Heaven because we're protecting her. Motherhood is a doctrine and you don't need kids to be a mother. If you just immerse yourself in the Gospel, you can change the world and be saved.
[...]

This whole motherhood doctrine (without kids) is a little confusing to me.

[Northwestcoug]

"A Great Holiday Gift for the Woman who has Everything (but the priesthood)"