Month: June 2014

LDS woman being set apart for a calling in the Church.

“We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?” —Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” April 2014 General Conference. Emphasis added.

I’m a Sunday School teacher in my ward, and today I taught about women and the priesthood. I thought I’d share a few thoughts from that lesson, especially in light of current events.

“Simple” Questions

I started my lesson by asking a few “simple” questions about the priesthood:

• Do women have responsibilities in their callings in the Church?
• Do women have authority in their callings in the Church?
• Do women have priesthood authority in their callings?
• Do women exercise priesthood authority?
• Do women hold priesthood authority?

The questions start out relatively easy, and most in the class knew the answers, and were ready and willing to respond. But I knew as I progressed through the questions that there was some confusion. Perhaps many of us are likewise stumped when it comes to these questions, or we may think we know the answers when we don’t. [Read more…]