There are several hot topics that come up on a regular basis in the Church.\u00a0 One of those is women’s relationship with the priesthood in the Church.\u00a0 Concerns over equality in policy making, involvement in the life of the Church, and quite a few other things factor into this issue. \u00a0Given that women comprise half (or more) of the membership of the Church, it is of huge importance to all members.<\/p>\n
One notable voice speaking about women and the priesthood is Wendy Ulrich, who recently published a book on the subject entitled Live Up to Our Privileges: Women, Power and Priesthood<\/a> <\/em>(Deseret Book, 2019). \u00a0Ulrich is president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, a visiting professor at Brigham Young University, and an author of several books for Latter-day Saint audiences. \u00a0She recently shared some of her insights into the topic of women and the priesthood in a 10 questions interview with Kurt Manwaring.\u00a0 What follows here is a summary of her remarks with some commentary, and I encourage you to read the full text of the interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the interview, Wendy Ulrich begins by discussing how there are several different perspectives among women in the Church about the priesthood. On one end of the spectrum, \u201csome women in the Church assume priesthood is something men have that they aren\u2019t especially interested in\u201d for various reasons. On the other hand, \u201csome women are convinced that women will never be full and equal partners in the Church unless they are ordained to the priesthood as men are.\u201d In between are some who \u201ctake at face value comments from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about women having priesthood authority or priesthood power, but they are not sure what that looks like in a practical way.\u201d\u00a0 Her own perspective is that \u201cthe privilege of participating in the Lord\u2019s work with authority and power is gender-neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n Her comment on participating in the Lord\u2019s work is based on how she understands what the priesthood is. \u00a0When asked \u201cwhat is a definition of the priesthood that \u2018clarifies what men have and women do not\u2019?\u201d, she responded:<\/p>\n To be honest, I\u2019ve never really found such a definition.\u00a0The common definition of a priest is someone authorized to perform the religious rites of a religion, and by that definition LDS women serving in the temple are priests.<\/p>\n Elder Dallin H. Oaks\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0at general conference in 2014 that women who perform any priesthood task under the direction of one holding priesthood keys do so with priesthood authority.<\/p>\n Elder M. Russell Ballard has further\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that men and women are both endowed with priesthood power.<\/p>\n Early apostle Orson Hyde equated priesthood with governance, but women function in many governance and leadership roles in the Church just as men do, including over mixed-sex groups like Primary children and teachers.<\/p>\n Other apostles have equated priesthood with the power of God to create, resurrect, and redeem, which gives priesthood a much grander scope than mere earthly ritual or administration, but Doctrine and Covenants 138:38-39 and 55-56 strongly suggests that women were among those chosen as leaders in the premortal world, and Abraham 3:22-24 uses the similar language to describe those who assisted in the work of creation, implying that women were involved there as well.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve concluded that we could probably define priesthood, paraphrasing the definition given by Joseph F. Smith, as the authority and power of God delegated to men and women to do God\u2019s work in the earth for the salvation and exaltation of the human family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Defining the priesthood in a way that fully grasps both the similarities and the differences between the roles of women and men in the Church is difficult.\u00a0 The major difference that Ulrich brings up is that men hold specific offices in the priesthood (and thus serve in certain roles in the Church) while women do not hold those offices. \u00a0The emphasis in the interview, though, is that both men and women have access to the authority and power of God to work for the salvation and exaltation of humankind.<\/p>\n