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For those not watching, one of the members of the General RS Presidency offered the opening prayer at the FP Christmas devotional. I know it’s not a session of General Conference, and I know many will downplay it, but having a woman say the opening prayer at an official world-wide meeting where the President of the Church is presiding and a member of the FP is conducting is a good step toward telling local leaders to follow suit in their meetings. I like to celebrate the little things as well as the big ones.
Good point and I do think we will see more of this. We had a regional stake conference (all of Oregon watching the same broadcast) and one of the major speakers was a woman. Way different than the old days. Ray – I agree. Every step forward is a good one. Thanks for pointing it out to us. We skipped the broadcast to enjoy our Stake’s Festival of the Nativities. It was gorgeous and uplifting. They had the Christmas Broadcast running in the chapel for anyone who wanted to watch. On a side note the chapel was gorgeously decorated. White Wreaths hung on golden ribbon. Piles of deep red poinsettas banked the pulpit, sacrament table and so on. I miss flowers in church, this brought a song to my heart. Old-Timer wrote:For those not watching, one of the members of the General RS Presidency offered the opening prayer at the FP Christmas devotional. I know it’s not a session of General Conference, and I know many will downplay it, but having a woman say the opening prayer at an official world-wide meeting where the President of the Church is presiding and a member of the FP is conducting is a good step toward telling local leaders to follow suit in their meetings.
I like to celebrate the little things as well as the big ones.
I had wonderful old guy who was my Clerk when I was a Branch President. He’d previously been an exec-sec to Elder Holland on the area authority and a Temple president.
He was adamant in one meeting that a man should say the opening and a woman the closing (even that it was a priesthood duty to invite the spirit). It was a mark of his beautiful humility that he finished that statement by saying “but you’re the president and I’ll support you if you decide otherwise.”
Even so, I showed him the handbook which made no such instruction to reassure him I wasn’t an apostate!
The only instruction is to avoid frequently asking a husband and wife to do both prayers in the meeting to reduce the risk of singles feeling left out.
I say let’s celebrate all the little things that make our church feel more welcoming and loving. Thanks Ray! I didn’t watch it because Sun eves are the only time our family is all together, and my husband does not do anything with church. I wanted to do something all together, rather than watch it alone. Oh well. So we all made gingerbread instead!
Mackay, does the handbook really say not to have just couples say prayers in Sacrament meeting? That’s awesome if so. I haven’t been asked to give a single talk in Sacrament meeting since my husband stopped attending (10 years ago). I thought it was maybe because they always choose couples as the speakers. That’s very interesting, and hopeful.
😮 )That is great news Ray! Thanks for sharing! That’s great, I hadn’t noticed. Quote:The only instruction is to avoid frequently asking a husband and wife to do both prayers in the meeting to reduce the risk of singles feeling left out.
I remember when I was young the ward usually had a married couple say the prayers, if they had two singles doing it, I figured it was the bishop’s way of setting them up.
Thankful and Rebeccad, yes it does. I no longer have a copy of the grey book, but maybe DB could confirm? On another note, I hear that the ward directory on lds.org now lists husband AND wife as head of household and children as ‘other household members.’ The man is still listed first, but both are the ‘head of household’ together.
Again, not a big thing, but a slight shift.
That’s awesome, mackay11. I hadn’t known that, and it’s an even bigger step than the prayer example, imo. Postscript:I just logged on to the Directory page at lds.org and mackay11 is correct. Under “Head of Household” it now shows both my wife and me.
I showed it to my wife and daughters, and they are stoked!
Old-Timer wrote:That’s awesome, mackay11. I hadn’t known that, and it’s an even bigger step than the prayer example, imo.
Postscript:I just logged on to the Directory page at lds.org and mackay11 is correct. Under “Head of Household” it now shows both my wife and me.
I showed it to my wife and daughters, and they are stoked!
On the other hand… it may be some web-designer being politically correct… but I’d imagine someone fairly senior authorizes this kind of thing. Either way, it’s a positive gesture.
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