Why ordain women

We refuse to tolerate inequity in our secular institutions. Ordain Women asserts that we must also reject it in our homes and religious communities. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized during the 19th century when the prevailing culture prescribed separate spheres for men and women.

As such, lingering patriarchal patterns, though increasingly contested, still inform Mormon policies with regard to familial and institutional governance. This was not always so, however. Unfortunately, this vision for the women of the Church was never fully realized. Ordain Women asserts that priesthood must be re-envisioned as a power that transcends gender and is exercised by both men and women for the benefit of all. Equality is necessary for healthy, well-functioning relationships and communities.

In a lay church, we rely on the talents and abilities of our members. To underutilize, dismiss, or impede the contributions of half our membership is self-defeating. Ordaining women will allow all of us to share equally in the full blessings and burdens of Church service and spiritual authority. Ordain Women envisions a spiritual community in which women can again offer blessings of healing and comfort, as did our 19th-century Mormon foremothers, or have their pastoral and administrative gifts fully recognized, or join their husbands in blessing and baptizing their children, or lend their voices and experience to our decision-making councils, regardless of child-bearing ability or marital status.

Sadly, if we fail to ordain women and provide a more inclusive range of opportunities for women and girls in the LDS Church, a significant number will search elsewhere for a more equitable spiritual community, as many, particularly young and single women, already have.

Mormon women already give countless hours of essential service and have many delegated responsibilities in the Church. As the burden of leadership roles in the church rotates among lay members, the time commitment of most women will not likely change with ordination. However, we believe the satisfaction women experience in service would be enhanced, if they had the institutional authority to define and oversee their responsibilities, and the power of God with them to carry out their sacred duties.

All are one in Christ Jesus. Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact. It is not a matter of physical resemblance. For example, we do not require priests to be circumcised Jews or from the Levant, both of which were also central characteristics of the historical Jesus.

All are one in Christ Jesus. The Church has changed before, and it can change now. The rotation of the Earth around the Sun. The salvation of non-Christians. The death penalty. All of these are subjects about which the Church has changed its teaching, and rightly so. Doctrine develops over the lifetime of the Church; it does not remain stagnant, because the Holy Spirit continues to deepen our understanding of our revealed Tradition. Paul's writings which pre-date the Gospel accounts show women serving as prophets Philip's daughters , deacons Phoebe , missionaries Prisca , and leaders of local communities Lydia.

One is even called an apostle Junia. Women in the Pauline churches clearly were called and chosen for discipleship and leadership.

There is significant evidence that there were churches in the fourth to sixth centuries that remained in communion with Rome and also had women priests. Giorgio Otranto, Director of the Institute for Classical and Christian Studies at the University of Bari, Italy, discovered iconographic evidence of women presiding over the Eucharist in ancient catacomb frescos.

Otranto cites a letter from fifth century Pope Gelasius I scolding bishops in southern Italy for allowing women "to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the male sex Davidek to meet the needs of the underground church, in which single males were highly suspect, and to minister to Catholic women in prison.

Historically, the Church has made many changes in what had previously been regarded as authoritative teachings from tradition. One example in the early Jewish-Christian community was the decision not to require circumcision for Gentile converts. Later examples include changes regarding usury, slavery, the revolution of the earth around the sun, evolution, the respect due the Jewish people, and the use of Latin in seminaries and for worship. Paul says that all Christians, both male and female, share in and make up Christ's risen body, not by imaging the maleness of Jesus, but by participating in the paschal mystery through Baptism.

Galatians , an early Christian Baptismal formula, tells us "There is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female There is no shortage of vocations if we count everyone who experiences a call to priestly ministry. There are numerous married and single women and men who feel called to priesthood, but not necessarily to celibacy.

Many qualified women experience a call to priestly ministry, but because of their gender, have never been given the opportunity to test their vocation. They have received the same or more advanced academic degrees as male candidates, and have met the psychological, spiritual, and pastoral prerequisites for ordination.

If we were to stop excluding so many of our members from consideration for ordination; respect celibacy as an option for those called to it, rather than impose it on everyone; and restructure ourselves along lines of equality and mutuality, the "vocation shortage" would disappear. Women in all parts of the world feel called to priestly ministry. Women in all of these countries state that they too feel called to ordination, and believe women should be allowed to exercise priestly leadership.

Virtually all Protestant denominations, as well as reformed Judaism, have women serving as priests, ministers, or rabbis. It would seem that Catholicism has something to learn in our journey to ecumenism. We will have more and more priestless parishes and more and more substitutions of communion services for the Eucharist. Catholics will have the same worship service for which the Council of Trent condemned Martin Luther in the 16th century.