Trying to view this meeting from the point of view of YW leaders and older YW who are about to make the transition to RS. Let's see how that goes.
The new "Move Player" worked fine on our desktop, but not so well on my aging laptop.
Opening video - clips of women around the world. I love to see this.
By the way, why don't spouses of female auxiliary leaders sit on the stand? Do apostles' spouses sit there during General Conference? The stand just looks so empty!
Opening Song - Choir in white blouses with lovely corsages - lots of young women here. No women of color? I'm looking hard, see none. Maybe one Latina, actually? Excuse me, do we HAVE to keep the verse in about the "heathen nations bowing the knee" when it's all white folks singing? That bothers me. Should I just get over it?
Sister Beck:
Purposes of RS = an essential part of the restoration. This narrative starts with "commandments to Joseph Smith." Does this represent some revisionist history here, since the RS got started on its own first, and then was blessed and given keys by Joseph Smith?
A similar organization to RS "existed anciently"? I have never heard this before.
Its purpose is to "organize, teach and inspire [God's] daughters to prepare them for the blessings of eternal life."
3 responsibilities for each woman (and YW, I presume)
- increase in faith and personal righteousness
- strengthen families and homes
- serve the Lord and his children
Sister Allred:
All about the temple & what we do there. This would be a great talk to play for your YW in the lesson on preparing to go the temple.
Sister Thompson:
A historical overview of the Relief Society, with an emphasis on the diversity in the organization apparent from the beginning. Love the story about Eliza R. Snow telling her niece struck mute by stagefright, "Never mind. Next time you are asked to speak, try to have something to say." Go Eliza, right on girl.
President Uchtdorf:
This story about his wife's apologizing for her meals despite their apparent perfection is interesting, as is his "recipe" for fried eggs and twice-cooked toast, and the crowd is eating it up. He wants women to stop focusing on their imperfections. Hear, hear! He does put a positive spin on it by saying that this trait suggests that women want to please the Lord, but nonetheless it gets in the way of our progress, and a path to peace may be found by not being hyper-focused on homemaking skills or "talents" (singing, drawing) but on your spirit, your soul within, the creative process. Think outside the box when you think about what your talents might be. Give up on perfection. Wow, I love that. Be focused on others: the number of prayers we answer may be more important than the number of prayers we say.
Overall thoughts -
- no "video interlude," thank goodness. A dignified, succint, and crisp meeting.
- nothing here that suggests the "concerted effort" to reach out to young adult women that was promised in the new YW presidency's news conference last spring, but some bold and optimistic words about the place of women in the church in general, I think.
11 comments:
Apostles spouses do sit on the stand.
As for the choir, they said it was a choir from Alpine and Highland stakes. That's where I grew up. It's a very, very white area.
The thing about a similar organization to RS existed in the privative church seemed off to me. I've never heard that, and I'm curious any such documentation supporting it. It could have, of course, but I don't happen to be one who believes that the primitive church and the latter-day church had the same structure. Sure, the priesthood and ordinances were there, but as for the rest of it, it would have reflected the time and culture, just as the church today reflects the time and culture in which it was restored (i.e., low protestant). I've always wondered what our church services would be like if it had been restored in an area with high church services (like Catholic mass).
Anyway, that statement about a similar organization existing anciently... I don't think that's a claim that can actually be made.
Also, I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.
Spouses have a separate box of seats. Sister Thompson is single, I believe, or she was when I knew her ten years ago.
I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that there was something like RS before. It's not like it's made just for our time. I once asked Robert J. Matthews (religion professor at BYU) if RS extended into the life after this (something to do with something in my Patriarchal blessing), and he said he thought so.
Not that I know what the documentation is on any of that, but why shouldn't it be so? Why shouldn't women continue to teach and help women in the spirit world, or why shouldn't women have taught and helped women in other dispensations? It may have looked different, but the idea could be the same.
Eliza R. Snow Smith was a huge champion of the RS as part of the Restoration and that similar organizations existed in ancient times. It is all over the place in the 19th century. She based that in JS's sermons to the RS in Nauvoo (re-read the minutes).
Just a note...RS was never given keys.
There may have not been a RS type of organization for women; but Jewish women have met together, prayed together, ministered to one another and have helped the poor since ancient times.
Anonymous, I am uncertain what you mean by "keys," but Joseph Smith indicated that he "turned the key to them" and that he would give them the "keys of the Kingdom," the same as the elders.
ALL the choirs in ALL the church conferences seem very "white" to me - and sometimes I wish they weren`t (more emphasis on being a worldwide church would be nice)(but maybe Utah is mostly white?).
We have to wait 2 weeks for conference - sigh. I guess it takes them that long to put it into Japanese etc and get it to us. But thanks to modern technology, we can have it in Japanese in one room (the chapel) and other languages (English and Chinese normally) in other rooms. I think its great that we can each hear it in the language of our choice (^-^)
About the text of the opening song, I also bristled at this phrase, even while knowing that the lyricist was probably not referring to skin color: "While all the chosen race Their Lord and Savior own."
Whether or not he said he turned it "for" them or "to" them, Joseph's comment says that HE is the one turning the key. There is no indication that he believed they had the power or authority to turn the key themselves. Because of misunderstandings, in 1855, the official history of the Church was edited to read "I now turn the key in your behalf". In 1880, both Eliza R. Snow and Bathsheba Smith, who were present when the RS was established agreed with John Taylor when he said that the Nauvoo RS Presidency had been "set apart" in their callings, not ordained to the priesthood.
The "keys of the kingdom" most often refer to the power to seal and bind on earth as in heaven, and Joseph's mind at this point was focused on establishing the endowments with both the elders and the sisters before it was too late. More than a year later the first sisters received their endowments.
I think you should just get over it. And anyway, you have to pick your battles. Not EVERYTHING is worth the effort it takes -- not even for someone with your high level of energy.
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