I admit, I have a secret concern every Sunday at church. You see, I live in a Stake where women can't give the opening prayer during sacrament meeting and it bothers me. I try not to think about it, but everytime I see a women give only the closing prayer, I think quietly, "that's not right." You see, it doesn't say anywhere in the Church handbook that a women can't give the opening prayer in Sacrament. Some stakes or wards have the woman give the prayer, some don't. However, I was reading Feminist Mormon Housewives when someone (now this is just here-say at this point) stated that the new handbook will state explicitly that women can give both the opening and closing prayer in Sacrament meeting. Yeah!
Update: From 1967-1978, Women were not allowed to pray in Sacrament meeting. The ban was lifted and all was well. However, shortly before President's Benson's death, he gave a talk where he said women could not open a priesthood meeting. Individuals interpreted his words to mean Sacrament Meeting. The church stated that this was incorrect policy shortly after Pres. Benson stated that women couldn't open a priesthood meeting, but some stakes and wards continue to practice this. Link Link
11 comments:
Huh? Holy crap I have never noticed this.
MJ-Just watch. Or don't, as we're in the same stake, I think.
I've never heard of this EVER. Who made up this rule?
Oh great, now they are going to have women passing the water and bread and soon the keys (to the car)! Oh my heavens! hahahaha.
Glad to see equality is becoming 'official'.
Bren-I just updated the post to give a little background about this "rule."
I am so glad this is the first I have ever heard of this. It kind of really makes me mad.
And now I have to go back in time and rethink every church meeting I have ever been to.
Uh oh. I haven't blogged about this until now because I didn't want to ruin Sacrament Meeting for half of my readers. Oops.
I'd never heard of or thought about this until reading this blog. I've only been asked to give the closing prayer in this stake as far as I remember, and a male gave the opening prayer yesterday. Now I'm going to be paying more attention to that.
I'm so glad the handbook is updated...my sister was just telling me about getting new handbooks (she's a primary pres.). Now I'm going to want to look at my dad's copy (he's a bishop).
Sometimes I think I'm a little too rebellious to be LDS... :-)
I'm not in your stake anymore, so I guess I'll have to check it out. Just bizarre.
I've found myself watching to see who says the prayers at church now. It could very well just be a coincidence, but the opening prayers at sacrament meeting for the past two weeks have been given by males. My husband is the EQ president and received a new handbook. I mentioned this post to him, and he looked it up in the handbook, showing me a sentence that explicitly states either men or women can give the opening and closing prayers in church meetings.
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