In celebration of Ordain Women’s fifth anniversary, we sponsored a panel at the 2018 Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City titled “Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Many Voices of Ordain Women.” As we look to the future and a new organizational structure that emphasizes both individual and collective, local and global activism on women’s ordination and gender equality in the Church, the panel not only drew on the past to inform a discussion of our initiatives going forward but also featured the thoughts and experiences of a number of OW executive board members and supporters who share the common vision of a more equitable religious community. The following was presented by OW executive board member, Laura Pennock.
My name is Laura Pennock and I am the newest member of the Ordain Women executive committee and when I told people about my appointment, I was almost immediately asked: “Why do you continue to engage with Ordain Women?” It’s a legitimate question. I am no longer attending an LDS ward; I have joined Community of Christ. I think most of us have moved beyond active engagement with the LDS church, maybe we no longer even identify as LDS, perhaps we have had our names removed, or have – like me, joined another church.
Here’s my answer: Their misogyny, their homophobia, and their racism do not remain confined to the walls of their chapels; these things poison the entire community. This is my community: I live here, I work here, I have family here.
There is a reason Utah is at the top of the list of worst states for women.
There is a reason the teen suicide rate in Utah is staggering.
Whose influence drove the declaration of pornography as a public health emergency, rather than, say, air quality?
It was a Sunday morning that I got a text message from Bryndis, chair of Ordain Women, saying she wanted to talk to me. I knew what was on her mind, I just knew, so I was thinking about it during the service that day. I had been burning with anger and outrage at the LDS Church for a long time and the latest BIG FAT DEAL–the Joseph Bishop debacle–that exposed the systemic nature of abuse and coverup in the church had just exploded all over my Facebook feed. My anger and my outrage were righteous and appropriate and they are still there, but everything was suddenly different. As I sat there contemplating the thought that Bryndis was going to ask me if I would be willing to join the board of Ordain Women and meditating on what that would look like, my heart turned toward a new direction. Grace infused my feelings. Rather than wanting to set loose a wildfire on the institution and its leaders for the sole purpose of burning it down and walking away, I still want to burn it down but only in order to give them the opportunity to create something new.
Let me share with you some phrases from section 162 of the Community of Christ Doctrine and Covenants which I believe speak to the Brighamites as urgently as they speak to the Josephites:
Listen carefully to your own journey as a people, for it is a sacred journey and it has taught you many things you must know for the journey yet to come.
Listen to its teachings and discover anew its principles. Do not yearn for times that are past, but recognize that you have been given a foundation of faithful service, even as you build a foundation for what is yet to be.
…you are called… to discern the divine will for your own time and in the places where you serve. You live in a world with new challenges, and that world will require new forms of ministry…
…Be respectful of tradition and sensitive to one another, but do not be unduly bound by interpretations and procedures that no longer fit the needs of a worldwide church…
…The spirit of the Restoration is not locked in one moment of time, but is instead the call to every generation to witness to essential truths in its own language and forms. Let the Spirit breathe.
I believe that is the purpose for which Ordain Women was called into being.
We are making a difference. I regularly hear accounts of encounters with local leaders who are trying to be more inclusive, of discussions in ward meetings that include topics never before spoken aloud, of individuals speaking up against harmful rhetoric and challenging long-standing cultural norms, of women and men consciously observing their daughters being treated very differently than their sons.
Recently LDS Living published an article entitled: You Are My People: Inactive Gay Mormon Shares Powerful Insights After Attending Church for the First Time in Years. I wasn’t sure what I would find, considering the source, but from that article:
Imagine my surprise, then, to get a Facebook message from my friend saying the bishop and his wife in her mom’s ward in Riverton, Utah, had organized a meeting for and about the needs of LGBTQ Latter-day Saints. They had invited their entire ward to attend. They were unsure how many would come, but they wanted her to tell all her LGBTQ friends they were welcome there.
A few paragraphs later:
I could see almost every color, shape, size, race, ethnicity, orientation, and identity you could imagine—clothed in the most vibrant, creative attire—seated alongside ward members, family members, and allies eager to make space among the makeshift pews of metal folding chairs for their LGBTQ brothers and sisters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful.
What if it could be like this? I thought.
What if this weren’t a once-in-my-lifetime occurrence?
What if you could expect to see this walking into every LDS meetinghouse around the world on any given Sunday?
While LDS Living is not an official publication of the Church, you can be sure that it exists only because the Church hasn’t killed it — but it is being read by active, devout LDS people. What if…
As I sat in that Sunday service, contemplating Bryndis’s text and half listening to a wonderful sermon that I do not remember, I suddenly imagined a holy fire sweeping through the church office building that cleansed away what no longer serves any purpose in order to make room for new growth, new ways of being.
Imagine an LDS Church committed to mustering its legions and its resources to make a sincere, sustained and ongoing effort to be who they claim to be. It would transform this community, this region, this state, the world. It takes my breath away. May it be so.
You can listen to the Sunstone presentation:
Stream here or download. For access to more of Sunstone’s 2018 Symposium, visit their website.