This was supposed to involve all the sisters gathering at ward chapels or stake buildings. This involved a pre recorded message from Nelson (35 minutes) and then wait for this!

A special testimony meeting from everyone in attendance. Boy if anything can straighten out wrinkles in one's dresses then a good old fashioned cry-a-thon will certainly solve the problems of the day. This was to commemorate the purpose and founding of the Relief Society.

Here's more of the goobly goop about the event.

Stake or ward councils are encouraged to counsel together to discuss the following:

How Church members can help provide childcare support during the event so all Relief Society sisters can participate.

A meeting time for the devotional that best meets the needs of the sisters in each area.
An agenda for the meeting (see the following example):

Opening prayer
Prerecorded broadcast (35 minutes): Messages from President Nelson and the Relief Society General Presidency
Sharing of testimonies: length of time to be determined by the stake or ward.
Closing song
Closing prayer

Additional suggestions:
Encourage Relief Society sisters to record impressions they may receive during the devotional.
Invite sisters to connect globally on social media about the event using the hashtag (removed by MG).
Ask local Relief Society presidencies to facilitate the event.

Sounds like a forced testimony meeting for all attendees. "everyone will now stand and bare their testimony or we won't like you".

Forced testimony. I realize, now, how culty it was to randomly ask people to go up and bare their testimonies in front of the congregation if Sacrament Meeting came up short, or for any other stupid reason.

lapsed2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Forced testimony. I realize, now, how culty it was
> to randomly ask people to go up and bare their
> testimonies in front of the congregation if
> Sacrament Meeting came up short, or for any other
> stupid reason.

One time the bishop called on Brother Dozer to come up and bear his testimony during a lull in testimony bearing. He was napping and got elbowed by the wife. He was quite startled, the type of deep sleep where he probably had no idea where he was.

He actually turned red in the face as he made his way to the stand. Without thinking, he bowed his head and gave the closing prayer.

I kept my eyes opened. All the bishopric was stunned! Their mouths hit the floor. The organist took her cue and hopped up onto the organ to play some sort of music.

Members didn't wait for the bishop to reopen the meeting. They stood up and made their way out of the chapel.

The following week the bishop reprimanded the ward that only he had the authority to conclude a sacrament meeting. Whatever!

DAMN ('Darn' or 'flip' in some locations), I missed it, but 'thanks' for your play-by-play, m.goop!

btw, were refreshments offered?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2024 03:26PM by GNPE.

Not sure about refreshments. I don't think my mom attended.

What's funny is how my mom and two other mature sisters (they're elderly) heard wrong and showed up at the stake center for an adults only meeting. They walked in and sat down in the back row. They all noticed that they were the only women in attendance. Yes, they successfully crashed a stake priesthood meeting.

But the men were very nice by not stopping the meeting and running them off. Several stake leaders thanked them for coming to support the priesthood meeting.

This is in stark contrast as to how the leaders used to castigate members from the pulpit about hair length, choice of colored dress shirts and necktie styles.

UPDATE: I asked my mom about attending and she told me this. Yeah, there was a meeting at the stake center but it would be dark and I don't like driving in the dark. Besides, it was raining all day and I didn't feel like dressing up to sit in a cold chapel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2024 09:57AM by messygoop.

"Hey, let's have all of us be exactly the same level of less than we might be if we tried; 'tis better in the eyes of our priesthood masters to fail together than to ever try to be whatever our talents might manifest!!"

        --Some guy in drag, trying to manacle the Sisters

I read about this in the DN this morning. They couldn't have added the word "covenant" in the broadcast any more if they tried. Lots of talk about covenant keeping, covenant daughters, covenant path, etc.

It was also announced that young women are eligible to go to the temple to receive their endowment once they've graduated high school. Got to get those 18 year-old young women used to wearing garments and paying tithing, just like the young men.


https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/03/17/power-of-covenant-keeping-women-celebrated-during-relief-society-anniversary-worldwide-gathering/

Apparently one member of the Relief Society general presidency who spoke claimed that no other religious organization has so broadly given power and authority to women as this church.

Wait, what really??

Shinehah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Apparently one member of the Relief Society
> general presidency who spoke claimed that no other
> religious organization has so broadly given power
> and authority to women as this church.
>
> Wait, what really??


Including finances, of course!

what a pitiful pack of liars.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4oZ-otMOVL/?img_index=1

The response has been quick to develop- and mostly negative

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/20/lds-church-responds-social-media

"The overwhelming majority, however, explained that the statement felt at odds with their experience in the 17 million-member church.

“As active women,” @jentheginger wrote, “we have tried to have our voices heard. I’ve spoken in person with ward [congregational] and stake male leaders to ask for more female voices in the room to no avail.”

Words like “dismissive” and “gaslighting” peppered the comments, many of which went out of their way to avoid demonizing Latter-day Saint leaders and Dennis specifically."

"In more recent years, Latter-day Saint apostles have begun to speak more and more about women exercising priesthood power, believed to be God’s authority given to his children. Dennis, first counselor Relief Society General Presidency, referred to this teaching in her speech Sunday.

Priesthood “offices,” however, are exclusive to men and teenage boys.

This distinction is important, said Kristine Haglund, a writer and former editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

While “distinguishing between priesthood power and priesthood office in this way may feel empowering for many LDS women,” Haglund said, “the fact that women’s priesthood power is exercised exclusively with the permission and at the direction of men who hold priesthood office feels constraining and disempowering to many."

Several points about the presentation:

It had an official hashtag: #JesusChristisRelief
Sounds like more mainstreaming to me, of the "we are Christian too, nyah nyah" sub-genre.

The women were told that women in the RS had priesthood conferred in the endowment ceremony, which meant that all the women in the church have more power than even ordained women in other denominations. This overlooks the problem that the vast majority of women in RS (nominally nearly 8 million, but we know how inflated that figure is) have not been endowed.

Gadzooks. Shades of the nonsense I was fed as a kid about how an LDS deacon has more power in his little finger than the <pope, president, whomever>. The problem of course is that women in the LDS church have almost no decision making authority over any group that contains post-pubescent males. They can make limited decisions about RS and Primary, and that's about it, and even that is subject to male oversight.

I find it highly ironic that Maxine Hanks got excommunicated as part of the September Six for saying (in the book Women and Authority) that women had the priesthood, conferred in the endowment, and now the Suits are saying the same thing.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2024 05:59PM by Brother Of Jerry.

> I find it highly ironic that
> Maxine Hanks got excommunicated
> as part of the September Six for
> saying (in the book Women and
> Authority) that women had the
> priesthood, conferred in the
> endowment, and now the Suits are
> saying the same thing.


    So, are they going to reinstate her and give her all her back pay?

She was rebaptized several years ago. Don't know if they billed her for back tithing.

Just a cotton picking minute.

The fifth article of faith says priesthood is conveyed by the laying on of hands.

How do womenfolk get the priesthood if there is no laying on if hands?

I remember being ordained an elder hundreds of times.

Guess another 4 legs good, 2 legs better moment.

I believe this joke must be in the training manual for the old fellows who are called to be sealers in the temple. I have heard some variation of it at every one the few temple weddings I ever attended:

Sealer to the young bride, "Now that you're married you can hold the priesthood. You can even kiss him if you like!"

Everyone chuckle reverently please.

misplaced



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2024 01:54PM by Brother Of Jerry.

She basically came from St. George to go with one of her mormon mothers. Her favorite one. She and her husband are working in St. George while he trains bus drivers for Princess who will work in Alaska and she does payroll, so both work year round. I've hardly seen her this year.

This morning she had posted the whatever it was that Nelson gave last night. She just told me they had refreshments and she brought an extra cookie home in case I wanted it. Now I know. She's good at bearing her testimony, so I'm sure she liked doing it.

They always did this everyone bear your testimony every morning and girl's camp. I'd have to give one, so I did. Very short. I can't remember where else we had "forced" testimony bearing.

This was the big deal that the R.S. anniversary was? Wow????? I'm impressed.

When I was in young womens, we were supposed to line up the YW to babysit and they didn't like it. I had one girl sign up for us to go to the temple and she didn't do her usual good babysitting job. When I got home, the kids (not very old and twins) and thrown a bunch of stuff down the stairs and other fun things??). When I grew up in mutual, they always asked for us to babysit for things like going to the temple or meetings like this. My mother always volunteered me on work day for daytime R.S. as I worked at IRS for a season just out of high school. She didn't ask me. She'd just tell me. I was one of the very few if any other young adults at home during the day. I hated it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2024 08:00PM by cl2.

Vendensomspennende? Fantes det en Norsk oversettelse?

"Sharing testimonies" triggers bad memories for me. I should have been in a park or running the creek. I didn't have any torment free Sundays, and fast meeting was the most tormenting day of the month.

Ack. I missed it.

The comment from the RS general president said that no other organization in the world gives women the same power the RS sisters have since they have priesthood power through the endowment.

That did no go over well. There were over 8,000 comments on the church's Instagram page. They generally tried to be polite, but they clearly were not happy.

Here's one: "Genuinely, I could have stayed in an imperfect church," explained @seagillicuddy. "I was there for the journey. I was willing to stay on the ship. What finally led me to leave the church was rhetoric like this post that tried to make it seem like problems didn't exist, that I was seeing things, that I couldn't trust my own heart and conscience."

Ouch.

Then Wednesday night most of the comments vanished. The church is claiming Instagram was where the glitch was, and there is some evidence that may be the case. However, it had the effect of converting sadness into rage. Should be an interesting Thursday Meeting for the Q15 today.