I'm sure this has been covered often before, but I recently read an interesting quote from former church historian, Michael Quinn:

"In today's church a woman who has received the temple endowment has more priesthood power than a boy who holds the office of priest. However, the priest has more permission to exercise his priesthood than does the endowed woman to exercise hers"

I gather that historical documents that he hadaccess to in the secretive church vaults show that early on in the church some women were considered to hold the PH (especially those who were endowed and then later received their second annointing) and administered blessings etc and like many other things this was later adjusted over the years towards the church's current position denying this full stop.

The church is now massively male dominated and women must be subservient to male PH leadership and worship a male God. Even though Mormon theology must hold heavenly mother(s) to be equal in perfection and godliness, any talk about female deity is highly discouraged and disregard for this is likely to lead to eventual excommunication.

Thoughts on some of these things?

when he's in bed with her.

The boy who holds the office of priest can exercise it whenever and wherever he finds himself alone.

LMAO!

I think I want to start my own little offshoot of the Mormon church run by the priestesshood, which men can't hold because of their sacred role as fathers. At my church we will worship Heavenly Mother, and we can't talk about Heavenly Father out of respect so that people won't take His name in vain.

loveismyreligion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think I want to start my own little offshoot of
> the Mormon church run by the priestesshood, which
> men can't hold because of their sacred role as
> fathers. At my church we will worship Heavenly
> Mother, and we can't talk about Heavenly Father
> out of respect so that people won't take His name
> in vain.


That got a chuckle! I'll join up right away. Just send me the forms! :-)

BTW: I understood what Quinn explained many years before he wrote the book. It was fun talking to leaders about that!! LOL They did NOT want to hear it!

As my first convert, you can be the Church Matriarch. But I get to be the Prophetess and have as many husbands as I want.

http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/women/chapter17.htm#Woman

http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/women/chapter19.htm#Healers

Since the founding of Mormonism, women have been a tremendous resource in the church for exercising the gifts of the spirit, including prophesying, blessing, and healing. Several important articles and books by LDS scholars trace the tradition of Relief Society sisters exercising gifts of the spirit.3 Our nineteenth-century foremothers gave Mormon women an unparalleled heritage of spiritual activism—a sacred tradition still awaiting rediscovery.4

A few examples will illustrate. Between 1833 and 1837 when the church was headquartered in Kirtland, Ohio, Sarah Leavitt healed her daughter of illness, and church patriarch, Joseph Smith, Sr., told Eda Rogers that when her husband was absent, she could “lay hands” on her family, and “Sickness shall stand back.”5 In 1838 Amanda Smith and Louisa Pratt individually reported administering to and healing their children from sickness. Also Abigail Leonard told of healing a woman from near death, recalling that when she [441] and the sisters arrived at her bedside, the woman was cold and her eyes set, but before the sisters finished their administration, “the blood went coursing through her system … and she was sensibly better … [B]efore night her appetite returned … and in 3 days she sat up.”6

In Nauvoo, Illinois, the women of the Relief Society frequently pronounced blessings upon each other. Sister Durfee and Abigail Leonard tell of receiving blessings of health from Emma Smith and her counselors.7 Joseph Smith said, “Who are better qualified to administer than our faithful and zealous sisters whose hearts are full of faith, tenderness, sympathy, and compassion. No one.”8 Elizabeth Ann Whitney received her authority to bless through ordination. “I was … ordained and set apart under the hand of Joseph Smith the Prophet to administer to the sick and comfort the sorrowful. Several other sisters were also ordained and set apart to administer in these holy ordinances.”9

In April 1896 Apostle Franklin D. Richards reaffirmed the independent source of women's authority to perform healing ordinances. As an apostle and Church Historian, he instructed LDS women that they have “the right” to say these words in administering to the sick: “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ & by virtue of the Holy Anointing which I have received.”16

These women did not consider themselves radical innovators. They functioned according to the promises and authority given to them as members of the church. Unfortunately, in this century the church gradually revoked women's exercise of those promised gifts and authority to bless until they were no longer known or known only in secret. Yet the exercise of these gifts is promised in abundant measure—and promised through faith regardless of gender.

In determining whether or not women can serve as healers in the modern church, we must ask: What are the sources of spiritual healing and is ritual important?



Spiritual Authority to Heal


The promise of healing power came directly from Jesus Christ to anyone born of the Spirit: “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18). The Book of Mormon prophet Moroni also tells us that “all these gifts come by the spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man [or woman] severally, according as he [or she] will” (Moro. 10:17).

Church leader Bruce R. McConkie explained the gifts of the [443] spirit in Mormon Doctrine: “Faithful persons are expected to seek the gifts of the Spirit with all their hearts. They are to 'covet earnestly the best gifts' (1 Cor. 12:31; D&C 46:8), to 'desire spiritual gifts' (1 Cor. 14:1), to ask of God, who giveth liberally, (D&C 46:7; Matt. 7:7-8). To some will be given one gift; to others, another.”17 In explaining the gifts of the spirit, Joseph Smith included the gift of healing: “And again, to some it is given to have faith to be healed; and to others it is given to have faith to heal” (D&C 46:19-20). Women are clearly included in these admonitions to “seek the gifts of the Spirit with all their hearts.”



http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/women/chapter17.htm#Woman

For 150 years Mormon women have performed sacred ordinances in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every person who has received the LDS temple endowment knows that women perform for other women the “initiatory ordinances” of washing and anointing.1 Fewer know that LDS women also performed ordinances of healing from the 1840s until the 1940s.2 Yet every Mormon knows that men who perform temple ordinances and healing ordinances must have the Melchizedek priesthood. Women are no exception.3

Two weeks after he organized the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith announced his intention to confer priesthood on women. He told them on 30 March 1842 that “the Society should move according to the ancient Priesthood” and that he was “going to make of this Society a kingdom of priests as in Enoch's day—as in Paul's day.”4 In printing the original minutes of the prophet's talk after his death, the official History of the Church omitted Joseph's first use of the word “Society” and changed the second “Society” to “Church.” Those two alterations changed the entire meaning of his statement.5 More recently an LDS general authority removed even these diminished statements from a display in the LDS Museum of Church History and Art which commemorated the sesquicentennial of the Relief Society.6

Last night my SIL and BIL were at my house. She told me the reason no one speaks of heavenly mother is that God wants to protect her from being talked bad about. She said heavenly father is protective of her and cherishes her. I tried not to reveal the fact I thought this was odd.

There was a film shown on Temple Square during the 1997 sesquicentennial about a Mormon pioneer woman. I recall a scene where she prayed over an ox and healed it so that she and her family could continue on their journey. So an official church propaganda movie showed a woman with healing power, at least when the menfolk weren't around.

I remember watching that film when I was young. I asked my mom how a woman could heal the oxen and she said back then women could exercise the priesthood. I asked why they can't now, and she gave some lame answer about men being around to do it. It got me thinking...

example. There are all sorts of ways to share power under the current setup.

There is little incentive, since by the time a Mormon woman starts questioning her limited role, it is too late to save her from the tentacles of Satan.

I have seen active LDS women use priesthood powers for spiritual healing. There were a few women that I spent a considerable amount of time here in AZ with who used muscle testing and scripts involving Christ to remove emotional blocks and heal. In my troubled teenage years, these sessions brought more comfort and healing to be than any priesthood blessings administered to me by men. This work was pretty hush hush, but we attended a conference in SLC with many of these healers so I know that there are pockets of them in Arizona, Utah, Missouri and Wyoming. I wish I still had contact with them, their work was loving, fearless, empowering, non judgmental.

Try reading the book (maybe online)

"Woman in Mormondom" by Eliza R Snow and Edward Tullidge

It is full of references about women holding the priesthood and holding offices .......

Fascinating Reading

JB