Blog ~ Ordain Women

On the Road to Ordination: Ordain Women’s 10th Anniversary

Posted by OrdainWomen on Mar 17, 2023 in Blog | 0 comments

Today marks both the founding of the Relief Society on March 17, 1842, and the launch 10 years ago of the Ordain Women website. Once again, we’d like to think our 19th-century foremothers would have appreciated our nod to their efforts and joined us in giving Ordain Women a congratulatory thumbs up. As Ordain Women enters its second decade, we look to the future and a new organizational structure that emphasizes both individual and collective, local and global activism.

Such notable anniversaries also give us a moment to pause and ask: Have we made a difference? What have we learned? What is our vision going forward?

Have We Made a Difference?

We think we have. Ordain Women celebrates several changes in church policy and discourse over the last 10 years that, while falling far short of ordaining women, indicate our leaders are responding—glacially, but responding nonetheless—to our efforts and the prayers and petitions of other LDS women for a more equitable church, including:

Recognizing women as official witnesses for LDS church and temple rituals, such as baptisms and marriages
Lowering the age requirement, lifting the no-pants policy and increasing leadership opportunities for female missionaries
Giving women the opportunity to offer prayers in general conference
Combining the Priesthood Session and the General Women’s Meeting into a session for all members, after some experimentation that included live streaming the Priesthood Session and elevating the General Women’s Meeting to a session of general conference
A greater emphasis on gender-inclusive local councils
Significant, more gender equitable changes to LDS temple rituals
Efforts to separate priesthood from maleness by encouraging members not to use the term “the priesthood” when referring to men
A greater emphasis on gender-inclusive language
Ending discriminatory policies targeting female Seminary and Institute teachers
Adding photos of members of the general Relief Society presidency to the photos of male general church leaders on the semi-annual leadership chart in the Ensign and on the walls of the LDS Conference Center
Giving women employed by the LDS Church benefits packages that include paid maternity leave
Changing the dress code for female employees of the church to allow women to wear dress slacks and pantsuits
Equitably distributing funds for both the Young Women’s and Young Men’s programs
Admitting that crucial questions about women and priesthood are being asked, with many church leaders openly acknowledging they don’t know why women are presently barred from priesthood ordination
Parsing the terms priesthood power and authority in ways that attempt to be more inclusive of women, such as asserting, in the words of President Dallin Oaks, that both women and men are recognized as having “the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings”

What Have We Learned?

A long-term movement must find a sustainable pace. During OW’s first few years, “we communicated daily. … It was exciting and exhausting and completely unsustainable. No one can volunteer full-time indefinitely for a cause while maintaining their full-time day job and personal life. Movements need to find a sustainable pace to stay alive when the initial adrenaline rush comes to an end.”
A big ask makes incremental change more palatable. “In an organization so conservative that a rebranding of the home teaching program is seen as historic, even the smallest request for progressive change shocks the system. Asking for the real, global change we actually wanted put those baby steps into perspective. Since Ordain Women launched, the Church has changed several long-standing, seemingly permanent policies.”
Diversity requires effort. “Without an intentional and sustained effort,” movements often remain homogenous, particularly among “white, middle class, multi-generation Mormons living in Mormon-dense areas of the Intermountain West. To build a more global movement, informed by more diverse perspectives, we [have] to reach out and adapt to accommodate diversity.”
Public Advocacy is often the only way for women to communicate with the Church. Because Mormon women lack institutional authority and access to those leaders who have the ability to affect change in the Church, public advocacy is one of the few options open to those of us who actively seek ordination. Sadly, reactions in the form of institutional reprisals from Church leaders are impossible to predict or control. Some local leaders have been loving and supportive. Others have not.
There is a lot of support for the Ordain Women movement, inside and outside of the Church. “But it’s harder to see within the walls of our own churches, where oppressive church discipline policies force many people to hide their opinions. … Sexism doesn’t only affect members of our church. People working to combat sexism in the wider community need the help of religious feminists because one of their greatest barriers is the sexism people learn to tolerate at their places of worship.”
Recruitment isn’t necessary. Church leaders seem to believe that feminist ideals spread like a contagion from one woman to another and can be blotted out by silencing or casting out the original vector. … Instead, the need for equality is innate … We found that supporters of women’s ordination existed throughout the LDS Church. Any publicity at all, whether good or bad, led to influxes of new people supporting the cause, not because we persuaded them, but simply because they had found other people who believed what they already believed.

(Excerpted, in part, from an OW panel presentation/post by former executive board member April Young Bennett.)

Going Forward

As a movement, we believe Ordain Women’s organizational structure should reflect an activism that is both globally and locally innovative. It should also continue to inspire, not followers, but people with shared values to act upon common principles in a variety of ways.

We believe it wouldn’t be possible for a movement like ours to arise and resonate with so many, if they didn’t already share similar values and concerns. In this sense, Ordain Women never has recruited members, but brings together co-activists to work toward a common goal, namely, gender equality and the ordination of women.

As a board, what we propose going forward is the ability of co-activists throughout our community to access our resources and, within general guidelines, to propose and organize direct actions—large or small, local or global, individual or collective—under the Ordain Women banner. According to Ordain Women board chair Bryndis Roberts, “We believe this new structure will help propel us into being a truly worldwide movement and allow more space for local autonomy and creativity.“ OW-affiliated proposals should be legal, 501(c)(3) compliant and reflect the values we strive to embody—intersectional, thoughtful, authentic, focused, spiritually affirmative and motivationally self-reflective.

This year we’re also offering our supporters the opportunity to update their Ordain Women profiles. Times change. We change. After a decade of OW activism, we’d love to catch up with you. Your profile update, like new submissions, should capture your current thoughts on women’s ordination, but be concise—approximately 500 words. As before, we are not soliciting, nor do we support, diatribes against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Ten years ago, in anticipation of the launch of our website, a handful of us called, emailed, begged and prodded friends and family members to consider going public on their hopes for the ordination of women. We decided we needed at least 20 profiles in order to go forward. We launched with 24. Since then, hundreds have submitted OW profiles and committed to public action, nearly 2,000 have signed the All Are Alike unto God petition calling on church leaders to “thoughtfully consider and earnestly pray” about the question of women’s ordination, and discussions of women and priesthood are increasingly commonplace. It’s clear the question of women’s ordination isn’t going away. Neither are we. Happy 10th Anniversary!

Cross-posted: Women Should Be Bishops

Posted by OrdainWomen on Sep 20, 2022 in Blog | 0 comments

Ordain Women supporter Abby Maxwell Hansen originally wrote this post for the Exponent II blog. It was published on August 15, 2022, and is cross posted here with permission.

Imagine how great it would be to have Bishop Reyna Aburto conducting on Sundays and meeting you for your tithing declaration.

I think that women (not just men) should be called as LDS bishops. In fact, I think women should be bishops more often than men. When people argue about whether or not women should or could be ordained in the future it often comes down to the concern, “Do you want a young mom with little kids called as the bishop? That would be impossible for her!” But I disagree. I think it makes sense for women to be bishops at all stages of life, and for a lot of different reasons. I’ll go through a few scenarios in this blog post. WOMEN WITH YOUNG FAMILIES: Regarding the question of whether I want young mothers called as bishops, my answer is, “No, of course I don’t. But I don’t want to call a young dad with little kids to be the bishop, either!” However, if the church is small in an area and the parent of a young family does have to be called into a leadership position, which makes more sense in a traditional family with a stay at home mom and an employed dad? I think it’s the mom! Imagine a typical weeknight for them. She’s been home all day with young children, or if she’s outside of the house she’s been hauling them around with her while running errands and fulfilling her responsibilities. The dad has been away from home and his kids, dealing with adults and solving problems at work. By dinnertime, the mom is very ready to have a break from childcare and interact with adults, and the dad is very ready to spend time with his kids and unplug from the outside world. But what do we do? We call the dads into bishoprics, pulling them away from home on evenings and Sundays for church duties and meetings, and moms stay at home – isolated and without support from her partner. Many women I’ve interacted with at church really enjoy callings in the Young Women’s program- not only because they love the teenage girls, but because it gives them a weekly evening outing and summer events like Girl’s Camp and Youth Conference where they can leave their children behind in someone else’s care for a few hours or days. It’s a chance to interact with other adult leaders, plan and carry out activities, and feel useful to others outside of the sometimes drudgery of day-to-day care of babies and toddlers. Because of this, Young Women’s always felt more glamorous than say, nursery or primary callings. Those callings teaching young children usually require fewer hours and less work overall, but they rob the women called of their adult time in Relief Society class or with other leaders in the youth program. Yet we continue to call young dad into bishoprics, and their wives into nursery. I propose we swap that trend! Let the dads spend time with the toddlers, and the moms spend time running the ward and helping the grown-ups.

Dads are great at taking care of their kids while their wife is out of the home doing her church calling!

Other congregations are led successfully by females of all ages and family demographics. Women make great ecclesiastical leaders!

WOMEN WITH OLDER FAMILIES AND EMPTY NESTERS: I once overheard someone ask the wife of a new stake president how she’d been doing since her husband was called. She shrugged and said, “Well, I’ve just gotten used to being alone a lot!”. Her husband owned his own business and went to work all day, then in the evenings he’d often go straight to church meetings. They’d see each other for only minutes some days. She was canning and gardening, hanging out with her grandkids, taking institute classes, and passing the time. She wasn’t unhappy, but I do think she was seriously underutilized by the church. We could stop calling young fathers to be bishops by broadening the pool of possibilities to include older women who have spent decades raising their families but not working outside of the home. Their husbands still go to work because they haven’t reached retirement age, but these women don’t have a career and aren’t planning to start one at age 55. They have a lot of life experience, wisdom, patience and compassion that younger people don’t always have yet. More than anything, these women have time. Unlike young parents or older working men, they have the flexibility in their schedule to meet people when they are available or immediately in need. They could drive to the hospital at 10:00 am or go to a house late at night without disrupting a work schedule.

Older women are too often greatly underutilized in the church. I see very capable women with time to spare called to publish the ward newsletter while a younger, overworked man is put in charge of running the entire ward.

SINGLE WOMEN: I would argue that both single women AND single men would be great candidates for ward bishop – but for the purpose of this blog post, I’ll focus on single women. Recently Exponent blogger Trudy wrote a great post about why she believes LDS singles should be integrated fully into family wards, and I agree! Many girls and young women growing up in the church will not have the opportunity (or desire) to marry when they reach adulthood. The current unintended messaging to young people is that a woman who doesn’t achieve marriage and motherhood is not fulfilling the measure of her creation – and she’s sent away to the singles ward until she can find herself a spouse and then return to the family ward, finally able to serve. What better way to change this false idea than to let young people see single women serving as bishops in their wards as they grow up? Sometimes people worry about a single person being qualified to counsel families and married members of their wards if they have never been married themselves. However, male bishops currently give advice and counsel on all kinds of things they have zero firsthand experience with. (Single motherhood, divorce, abuse, loss of testimony, etc.) Spiritual leaders in many other religions are single and yet lead and counsel their congregations (for example, a Catholic priest who can’t marry still regularly provides marital counseling to members of his parish). Even Wendy Watson Nelson, wife of the current prophet, was a successful marriage and family therapist for decades as an unmarried woman. There is absolutely no reason to believe that a married man will give better support to families in crisis than a single woman could. IN CONCLUSION: Have I ever dreamed of being called as a bishop? Nope! It sounds terrible. So many uncompensated hours, plus thankless work and stressful nights. But just because I don’t want to be in charge of a ward doesn’t mean I don’t want any woman to do it anywhere. I also don’t want to be the president of the United States, but I’d never say, “I don’t want any woman to be president, because if we’re allowed to I might have to do it!” That’s silly. No woman ever has to be a bishop, simply because it’s permitted. (No man ever has to be one either, for that matter – because it’s a volunteer position and you can decline it.) Permitting women to be called as bishops would allow the entire church community to benefit from women’s distinct leadership skills in positions of authority and decision-making power. This filters up to the men in charge above her, finally able to have female voices directly included in meetings they are absent from now, and filters down below them to those they counsel and lead. Just because an individual woman doesn’t want to be a leader herself should never make her wish to ban all women from ever becoming leaders themselves. I also don’t want to be a politician, a brain surgeon, a Navy Seal or a lawyer – but I still want those fields open to as many women as are drawn to them. We all benefit from women writing our laws, doing our medical research, and defending our freedom.

Why are we so comfortable seeing women in every one of these areas except church leadership?

The church would benefit so much from opening priesthood positions (like bishoprics) up to women. I understand why it didn’t make sense to have women included in church authority in the 1800s when the church was founded, but we are now living in the year 2022. Women are no longer relegated to second class citizenship like they were then. We vote, we own property, we go to law school, we sit in congress – and it’s time we sit on the stand in Sacrament Meeting. There is zero scriptural or doctrinal mandate for a male only clergy, other than it’s just the way things have always been done. We’ve changed and adapted many other things since the 1800s that were fine one way then but aren’t anymore (like polygamy, slavery, Word of Wisdom, temple ceremonies, garments, tithing, etc…). If we can change all of that, why can’t we also change from a male only priesthood? Is the church not a church of continuing revelation?

The first time there’s a female bishop on the stand, I’m sure it will feel strange. It always feels weird when women are allowed to do things they’ve never done before. It felt strange the first time Saudi Arabians saw a woman driving a car! It felt strange to see women in space, voting in elections, doing police work, leading construction crews, or enlisting in the military. But it will only feel strange for a minute, and then it will be normal. Let’s practice making female leaders at church feel ordinary!

Cross-posted: What Do You Do When Brad Wilcox and John Bytheway No Longer Have All the Answers?

Posted by OrdainWomen on Feb 11, 2022 in Blog | 0 comments

This post was originally published on the Exponent II blog on February 8, 2022 by Abby Hansen

Popular speakers and authors Brad Wilcox (left) and John Bytheway (right).

I had several favorite speakers and authors growing up as a teenager in the nineties. One of them was John Bytheway, and another was Brad Wilcox. I would save my money and go to Deseret Book to buy their talks (recorded on cassette tapes) and play them endlessly on repeat. I could probably recite whole sections of them from memory if I sat down and tried. I can hear every voice inflection, every pause for laughter, and every emotional testimony that they bore on these recordings. I thought they were brilliant men. I went to each John Bytheway fireside I could possibly drive to, and in college I was thrilled to sign up for his Book of Mormon class at BYU. One day I went up to him after class and tearfully told him how much he’d meant to me during my teenage years. He was kind but brushed it off with a self-effacing joke about how disappointing it must be to take his class now, since his teaching style was so different from the more entertaining way he tries to speak at firesides. I was mildly let down by the interaction because I actually loved his class, and just wanted him to say, “Aw, thanks. That’s such a kind thing for you to say.” Instead he looked uncomfortable and like he wanted to bolt, but it was okay. I thought he was just very humble and still loved his class and took copious notes on every word he said. I didn’t meet Brad Wilcox in person until I was a married adult, living in Lehi, Utah. I saw he was the keynote speaker at the kickoff to Lehi Family Week years ago, and I was excited to attend. Afterwards I went up to meet my other idol, and tell him about how he was the soundtrack to my life for years. He was very friendly and told me that he didn’t think anyone even remembered those old talks, and told me a secret that I could now download all of them for free on his website. It was a little better interaction than talking to John Bytheway, because he seemed genuinely happy to hear he’d been helpful to me, but he also made me feel a little out of date still referencing ancient talks that no one had mentioned to him in years. Overall my experience with both men was highly positive until around the year I turned thirty, at which point I stopped seeing them as heroes (just like John Bytheway had tried to encourage me to do as his student) and instead saw them more as ordinary men with a knack for public speaking. This year I turned forty, and both of these men are still speaking and writing for youth. During my thirties I changed my mind about the acceptability of women and girls holding no positions of authority in the hierarchy of a church that impacts their lives so intensely, and it’s been very interesting to me to see what these heroes of my youth have to say about women and the priesthood.

I recently stopped into my local Deseret Book and picked up a new book by John Bytheway from a display stand. I flipped through it and found some pages where he addressed the issue (a topic that I never heard mentioned by him or Brad in my teens or twenties). Right now a lot of people are viewing Brad Wilcox’s viral video from an Alpine, Utah fireside this past weekend and are shocked at his explicitly racist explanation of the priesthood ban – but I think it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t the first time it’s been said by a popular youth speaker. Below is the link to what Brad Wilcox said about the priesthood, and I highly recommend you watch the whole segment (both about why Black men didn’t have the priesthood and why women still don’t). His voice inflections and occasional mocking tone makes it sound very different than just reading it on a page. At 10:55 he ends by asking, “…Girls, how many of you have ever entered the temple to perform ordinances? Okay, raise your hands. Raise your hands high. Do you realize that you’ve done something that no man on this earth can do? There’s not a male on this planet who can enter a temple to perform ordinances without being ordained. And yet, you just waltz right in! You walk right in. So what is it that sisters are bringing with them from the premortal life that men are trying to learn through ordination? Maybe that’s the question that ought to be keeping us up at night.” In conjunction with this talk, here is what John Bytheway has already published about the priesthood in his current book for sale at Deseret Book, on page 49:

To those of you who have now watched Brad’s fireside in Alpine, John’s choice of words will sound extremely familiar. Who came up with this idea first? Was it John in his book, Brad in an earlier talk that wasn’t recorded, or was it a high ranking general authority (or even apostle or first presidency member) who gave this message to them and asked them to disseminate it to the public? It seems unlikely that they both spontaneously came up with the exact same response, with almost identical wording, independent of each other. The racism has been discussed widely online, and I will defer to others for that conversation. See this Facebook post and Twitter thread. It’s worth mentioning that Brad Wilcox has already come out and apologized to Black members of the church for the racist remarks, but has yet said nothing in reference to the sexist comments that he made immediately after. See LDS leader Brad Wilcox apologizes for remarks about Black members; BYU ‘deeply concerned.’ I’m a woman who was raised in the LDS church, and I have two daughters, one attending Young Women’s, and the other in primary. We’re being told that as females, we’re somehow luckier and more special than our male peers because we can just “waltz right in” to the temple whenever we feel like it. Except we can’t. (What is Brad even talking about?) We have to do everything else that a man does to go to the temple. I don’t get a free pass on paying tithing, drinking tea, or skipping my church meetings. I still have to answer temple recommend questions every two years and be interviewed by my male priesthood leaders where I tell them what kind of underwear I wear each day. I have to cross every single hurdle that men have to cross – except for the one that lets me bless my sick children in the middle of the night, preside in a meeting, or see women with authority, independence and final decision making ability. For most of the history of the temple, women (including myself) didn’t make covenants directly with God like the men did, and our entire destiny and eternal potential is a complete mystery because Heavenly Mother is a hidden secret – but because we don’t have to have priesthood ordination to go into the temple, somehow that’s supposed to make it all okay? Are men picked on and persecuted because they get to possess the actual power of the God of the entire universe while girls and women just have to do everything else exactly the same, only minus the power and authority? Oh, my. It must be so hard to be a man. It was just over a hundred years ago that girls and women were told they were very lucky not to have to deal with politics and voting like the men did. Choosing who to vote for was described as a burden that men took on reluctantly, but heroically. Many women believed that was the case for a very long time, until they realized that it wasn’t true at all. Having power and being involved in decision making (not by just influencing the men in their lives, but by actually having a vote themselves) wasn’t a burden – it was a blessing! Priesthood ordination and true equality for women in the church will likewise not be a burden. It will be the greatest blessing they have ever experienced. If our only consolation prize for not being ordained is that we don’t have to be ordained to go to the temple – that’s a meaningless reward. The current status quo will not be good enough for the next generation of young women. The world has changed since the 1990s. I have changed since the 1990s. Brad Wilcox, John Bytheway, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints *has* to change if they want to stay relevant in the lives of girls and women like myself and my daughters. It’s simply not an option anymore.

Twelve Days of Christmas 2021

Posted by OrdainWomen on Dec 25, 2021 in Blog | 0 comments

Photo Credit: St. Stephen’s, University of Oxford

Each Christmas, Ordain Women publishes a wish list of policy changes that would brighten the holiday season for all Latter-day Saints who seek gender equality. Lightheartedly sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas, we offer the list yet again this year—with modifications that reflect the policy changes that have occurred in the interim. We hope for further changes until women are ordained and our religious community fully embraces the radical inclusiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May it be so. Merry Christmas!

Ordain Women’s Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree… Full gender parity!

On the second day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Mothers in blessing circles
and
Full gender parity!

On the third day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the fourth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the fifth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the sixth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the seventh day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles.
and
Full gender parity!

On the eighth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Lessons that quote women,
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the ninth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
More female speakers,
Lessons that quote women,
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles
and
Full gender parity!

On the tenth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Women Mission Leaders,
More female speakers,
Lessons that quote women,
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Female Stake Clerks,
Women Mission Leaders,
More female speakers,
Lessons that quote women,
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Women’s ordination,
Female Stake Clerks,
Women Mission Leaders
More female speakers,
Lessons that quote women,
Gender inclusive language,
Wives, too, preside,
Women interview girls!
Female Ward Clerks,
Women on all councils,
Mothers in blessing circles,
and
Full gender parity!

Women Are Still Watching- General Conference, April 2021

Posted by OrdainWomen on Apr 3, 2021 in Blog | 0 comments

As General Conference approaches, women are still watching for substantive signs that our leaders are listening to our pleas for a more inclusive and equitable church. We note several welcome changes in church administrative policy that have occurred over the last few years, in part, because of the combined efforts of OW and other LDS feminist initiatives, including:

A lowering of the age requirement and selective lifting of the no-pants policy for female missionaries
Women offering prayers in general conference
The announcement that the General Women’s Meeting is now a session of general conference like the Priesthood Session
The availability of the Priesthood Session to all through live streaming
A greater emphasis on gender-inclusive local councils
Significant, gender equitable changes to LDS Temple rituals
Efforts to separate priesthood from maleness by encouraging members not to use the term “the priesthood” when referring to men
Referring to women who head church auxiliaries by the title president rather than sister
Expanding female leadership by announcing new positions for women as members of international area councils and advisors to male area authorities outside of the United States and Canada

Clearly, paying attention and speaking up are essential to the revelatory process. To that end, Ordain Women once again offers Women Are Watching — Conference Bingo as a reminder to do both.

You can download the Women are Watching — Conference Bingo Card here. As you watch each session of General Conference, mark the appropriate space when, for example, a woman offers a prayer or a woman of color speaks or a scripture is amended in order to be gender inclusive. The middle square is free and, like priesthood ordination and the generosity of God, should be available to all.

As Ordain Women enters its 9th year, we look forward to more changes that reflect the radical inclusiveness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including the ordination of women.

Ordain Women’s Twelve Days of Christmas

Posted by OrdainWomen on Dec 25, 2020 in Blog | 0 comments

Each Christmas, Ordain Women publishes a wish list of policy changes that would brighten the holiday season for all Latter-day Saints who seek gender equality. Lightheartedly sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas, we offer the list again this year with modifications that reflect the policy changes that have occurred since we first started publishing Ordain Women’s Twelve Days of Christmas. We hope to cross further changes off our yearly lists until women are ordained and our religious community fully embraces the radical inclusiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May it be so. Merry Christmas!

Ordain Women’s Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, the Prophet could decree…
Full gender parity!