DOCTRINE and COVENANTS SECTION 25 - November 2019
We discussed Section 25 and the following comments were made:
The Lord is giving Emma an office for her calling and is telling Joseph to ordain Emma for this calling.
There is a priesthood relationship in marriage - it is also a converse role - each is to support the other
We can learn how to access priesthood power for ourselves through a careful reading of section 25.
The Lord is realigning Emma's efforts in His work through this revelation
We had a good discussion about actual blessings through the priesthood power and authority we have as endowed women. I mentioned something about the blessing on women left by Eliza Snow at the end of her addressing women at various meetings. I thought I had read this in The First Fifty Years of Relief Society--it was actually in the remarks given by Jill Mulvay Derr (church historian and editor of said book) at FAIR Mormon a few years ago:
First, this answer from Jill regarding the question of women giving health blessings in the early Church:
“Will this practice ever again be given license by the authorities of the Church?” That is certainly something I cannot answer. I think the publication of The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, with abundant references to healing blessings, is an indication that there is a coming acknowledgment that that was certainly a part of women’s lives in the nineteenth century, an important part. It was significant to them. They practiced it often, and the story of the diminishing of that practice is a very long and complicated story. I would refer you to the work by Jonathan Stapley and Kristine Wright in the Journal of Mormon History[51] for a careful examination of changes in that practice and ultimately the policy."
"And Eliza Snow, for example, was accustomed to giving a blessing to women at the end of her addresses to the Relief Society; it was a common part of what she did. And after she was set apart as General President by John Taylor, there was a lot of concern about invoking a blessing on women, that that was something that she should not do. So even during her lifetime that was questioned. And so it is interesting to see how she adjusted to that. She would say something like this: “I would like to bless you, but under the circumstances let me just say, I pray that the Lord will bless you.”[52] It was a very lovely and beautiful way to continue what she had been doing, but keeping as she always did within the order she so respected and believed that by working within that order with respect and with faith, women would have great authority and power, and they did."
Jill Mulvay Derr - complete presentation
The link to Jonathan Stapley's podcast:
Jonathan Stapley - The Power of Godliness
This is the link to the transcript of the podcast.
Here is the link to a recent Sharon Eubank article:
Sharon Eubank - A Letter to a Single Sister (or anyone else who is longing to belong)