Hi, I’m Kristy Money.  I’m on the Executive Board of Ordain Women, I’m a psychologist who earned my Ph.D. from BYU, I’m a believing Latter-day Saint, and I also happen to believe women should be ordained.  For the last few months I’ve been researching very in-depth, finding quotes from early church history on women and the priesthood.  I found 35 very compelling quotes, which I’m about to share with you, with some stories interspersed.  But first a disclaimer:  Neither I nor Ordain Women are saying unequivocally that Joseph Smith ordained Emma and others to the priesthood before he was killed. LDS historians continue to debate whether or not women were given the priesthood during the Restoration.  Let me repeat: OW does not take an official stance on it, and at the present time we comply with current LDS Church policy that only men are ordained to priesthood office at this time, and we’re only asking the Brethren to take the matter to the Lord.  So, we're not ordaining anyone or claiming we already have the priesthood.  All I've done was compile a list of quotes, for you to study for yourselves. These quotes do include statements (some from Joseph Smith himself, and some from scriptures) that Joseph ordained women (in some form) and he and his Brother Hyrum promised them the fullness of the priesthood.   You can read many of these quotes for yourselves, in the original handwriting of the authors, thanks to the Church’s own project, josephsmithpapers.org.  I’ll let you know when you can find a quote on that site, it’s fascinating, it’s really like a treasure hunt.  You just put key words into the search box, and then lo and behold it pulls up the page with those words highlighted from the original handwritten 1844 document that the Church scanned and made public to everyone.  Thank you so much, Church History Department!  I kid you not, whenever I’d find another one, usually on my laptop in bed, I would shout out loud, like “Yes!”  or “woah, here it is!!!!”  and really freak out my husband Rolf.  He said I sounded like I won the lottery each time. Which yes, I’m a nerd, research is kinda my drug of choice. So I also included the specific link in the Joseph Smith papers where you can find those quotes in a pdf document with all 35 quotes, if you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to explore josephsmithpapers.org, but I highly recommend you spend hours on the church’s site, it’s truly phenomenal.  We wish you luck in your personal studies and conclusions given what was recorded and preserved in Church history.  More importantly—regardless of what did or did not happen before Joseph’s death and Brigham Young’s disbanding of the Relief Society in 1844 for 20 years–we firmly believe that the LDS Church, through God, is capable of remarkable innovations with continuing revelation.  OK, let’s jump in.  I’m going to start with statements from Joseph Smith and move chronologically, up to in early modern church history we have accounts of President Kimball’s wife giving him a healing blessing.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  OK, here we go.  

  1. Joseph Smith’s private, personal journal reads that he “gave a lecture on the pries[t]hood shewing [sic] how the Sisters would come in possession of the privileges & blessings & gifts of the priesthood. & that the signs should follow them. such as healing the sick casting out devils” -Book of the Law of the Lord, 8 April 1842, in Joseph Smith Papers (josephsmithpapers.org, original document here)        

  1. “He [Joseph Smith]  propos’d  that the Sisters elect a presiding officer to preside over  them, and let that presiding officer choose two Counsellors  to assist in the duties of her Office— that he would ordain  them to preside over the Society— and let them preside  just as the Presidency, preside over the church….If any Officers are wanted to carry out the designs of  the Institution, let them be appointed and set apart, as  Deacons, Teachers &c.” -March 17, 1842, Eliza R Snow, Nauvoo Relief Society Minutes, in Joseph Smith Papers (original document here)

Speaking of deacons, teachers, etc (splice to song) “We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, namely apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelests and so forth.”  Articles of Faith 1:6, from the Pearl of Great Price.  The articles of faith were originally published by Joseph Smith in the newspaper in response to the question, what are the Church’s core religious tenets?  That’s why I’m including this in the quote list, and also, bc many of you may not know that in the primitive church, women held these offices.  The old and new testament call the following women prophetesses—Miriam (Exodus 15:19-22), Deborah (Judges 4:4-5), huldah (2 Kings 22:14-17), Anna (Luke 2:27, 36-38)—and women during the very first century after christ’s ministry were referred to as deaconesses—priscilla and phoebe—and apostles—Junia (See Romans 16, Paul himself called her a fellow apostle.  OK, back to 1844.  

  1. “He [Joseph Smith] ask’d the relief  Society if they could not see by this sweeping stroke, that wherein they are ordained, it is the privilege of those set apart to administer in that authority which is confer’d on them— and if the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let every thing roll on...Respecting the female laying on hands, he further remark’d, there could be no devils in it if God gave his sanction by healing— that there could be no more sin in any female laying hands on the sick than in wetting the face with water. He reprov’d those that were dispos’d to find fault with the management of concerns--saying if he undertook to lead the church he would lead it right--that the calculates to organize the church in proper order.” -Eliza R. Snow, Nauvoo Relief Society Minutes, in Joseph Smith Papers (original document here)    *I like that, it shows Joseph’s spunk, that people seemed to be criticizing him for giving the women too much authority, and he’s like, hey, I’m going Restoring the Church on the face of the earth people, I’m going to lead it right, lay off!”  And after reading Rough Stone Rolling (which you can buy at Deseret Book, btw) i could totally see that personality trait coming on strong in other areas too.  

  1. Joseph Smith said to the Relief Society, “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.”  -30 March 1842,  Eliza R. Snow, Nauvoo Relief Society Minutes, in Joseph Smith Papers (original document here)

  1. Joseph also said to the Relief Society, “the keys of the kingdom are about to be given to them that they may be able to detect everything false, as well as to the Elders...I now turn the key to you in the name of God, and this society shall rejoice, and knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time …”  -28 April 1842, Eliza R. Snow, Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, in Joseph Smith Papers (original document here)    *share story of seeing Emma statue for the first time, and looking closely that he’s pressing a key into her hand*

  1. 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.”   Relief Society Minutes, 28 April 1842,  in Joseph Smith Papers  (original document here)

  1. The fifth time the Nauvoo Relief Society convened in 1842, Sarah Cleveland invited the sisters to speak freely. Sister Durfee "bore testimony to the great blessing she received when administered to after the last meeting by Emma Smith and [her] Counselors Cleveland and Whitney, she said she never realized more benefit through an administration." She added that she had been healed and "thought the sisters had more faith than the brethren."  -Relief Society Minutes, 18 Apr. 1842, in Joseph Smith Papers (original document here)

  1. D&C 25: 6-7  “And thou [Emma Smith] shalt be ordained under his [Joseph’s] hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church, according as it shall be given thee by my Spirit.”  For those who want to know what exhort means, it means to lead and guide.

  1. Joseph Smith’s First Counselor Sidney Rigdon said,  “Emma was the one to whom the female priesthood was first given.”    -June 1868, communication to Stephen Post, LDS Archives    *now,  by 1868 Sidney Rigdon had already left the church, but by then so had a lot of the original first witnesses of the Book of Mormon, but we don’t discount their testimony.   Also, Sidney wouldn’t have had a reason to lie about Emma like that, the issue of women and the priesthood wasn’t a hot button issue until the 20th and 21st centuries.*

  1. The prophet Joseph’s secretary noted that on February 3, 1844 Jane Bicknell Young was endowed and received “into the Quorum of the Priesthood.” -Diary of William H. Clayton, LDS Archives

  1. Bathsheba W. Smith, 4th General Relief Society President and wife of First Presidency member, wrote, “I never like to hear a sermon without hearing something of the Prophet [Joseph Smith], for he gave us everything, every order of the priesthood. He said he had given the sisters instructions that they could administer to the sick and he wanted to make us, as the women were in Paul’s day, ‘A kingdom of priestesses.’”  -9 June 1905, Pioneer Stake Relief Society minutes, LDS archives  *I like the spunk in this one too, Bathsheba was *there* during the restoration, she heard Joseph Smith and was a strong leader in the Relief Society.  And if you look at the timing, she said this in 1905, right around the time that later church materials are starting to, um, correct headstrong sisters who are insisting they have the priesthood and can lay on of hands, and she’s like, hey, I was there, Joseph Smith gave us every order of the priesthood, don’t try to take this away from us.  But take it away they did, with the final nail in the coffin with the correlation program implemented in the early half of the 20th century.

  1. Elizabeth Ann Whitney  (counselor to Emma Smith in the Relief Society Presidency, wife of the Church’s first bishop) 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.”    Elizabeth Whitney Autobiography, published in the Woman’s Exponent, 15 Nov. 1878, p. 91.

  1. On September 17, 1843 Patriarch (and Joseph Smith’s brother) Hyrum Smith blessed Olive G. Frost, one of Joseph Smith’s plural wives, that “you shall be blessed with a knowledge of the mysteries of God as well as the fullness of the Priesthood.” -Hyrum Smith patriarchal blessing to Olive G. Frost, LDS Archives.   *remember this is Hyrum, Joseph's right hand man and brother, church patriarch, who died with him in Carthage)

  1. Hyrum also blessed blessed Leonora Cannon Taylor: “You shall be blesst [sic] with your portion of the Priesthood which belongeth to you, that you may be set apart for your Anointing and your induement [endowment].” -Hyrum Smith patriarchal blessing to Leonora Taylor, 28 July 1843, LDS Archives

  1. Joseph and Hyrum’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, was told by their uncle, John Smith, on Nov 29, 1844:  “Thou art...a lawful heir to the priesthood which was sealed upon the head of Ephriam.”  -Patriarchal Blessing of Lucy M. Smith

  1. John Smith, their uncle, also gave Emily Partridge Smith Young, a plural wife to both Joseph and Brigham, the following Patriarchal Blessing:  “Sister Emily, by virtue of the holy priesthood, I place my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and seal upon thee a patriarchal or father’s blessing, for thou art...a lawful heir to the priesthood, which shall be conferred upon thee in fullness in due time.    -26 June 1849,  Later Patriarchal Blessings, p. 46-47.

  1. Augusta Cobb Young (3rd wife of Brigham Young) wrote a letter in February 1848 to her friend in Boston, giving her a blessing, which she sealed upon her friend’s head “by the power of the Holy Priesthood vested in me.”  Then two months later, she wrote a petition to Brigham Young to be sealed to Joseph Smith posthumously, making the request again by “the power of the Holy Priesthood vested in me.”  That document was notarized by Willard Richards and Heber C. Kimball as members of the First Presidency.  Augusta clearly believed that she held the LDS priesthood and two members of the First Presidency who were also within Joseph Smith’s inner circle in Nauvoo did not disagree with her.  The prophet granted her wish.  -Journal of Mormon History, Utah State U., Spring 2012 issue.   Please read the whole article featuring Augusta, I linked to it in the pdf on ordainwomen.org/quotes, Augusta was one spunky woman.

  1. Joseph Young (a patriarch and senior president of the Council of Seventy) blessed his neice, Brigham Young’s daughter: “These blessings are yours, the blessings and power according to the Holy Melchi[z]edek Priesthood you received in your Endowments, and you shall have them.” -Patriarchal blessing by Joseph Young, 28 May 1878, in Zina Young Card Papers, Archives, Lee Library, BYU.

  1. Zina D. H. Young, plural wife of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young said, "It is the privilege of the sisters, who are faithful in the discharge of their duties, and have received their endowments and blessings in the house of the Lord, to administer to their sisters, and to the little ones, in time of sickness, in meekness and humility, ever being careful to ask in the name of Jesus, and to give God the glory.”  -Woman’s Exponent 17 (15 Aug. 1889): 172.

  1.  Zina Young also recorded in her journal that on Joseph Smith’s birthday in 1881, she washed and anointed one woman "for her health" and administered to another "for her hearing." She remembered the Prophet’s birthday and reminisced about the days in Nauvoo when she was one of his plural wives: "I have practiced much with My Sister Presendia Kimball while in Nauvoo & ever since before Joseph Smiths death. He blest Sisters to bless the sick."  -Zina Diantha Huntington Smith Young Diary, Vol. 13, Aug.-Dec. 1881, LDS archives.

  1. Patty Sessions, plural wife of Joseph Smith, wrote “I felt as though I must lay hands on her. I never felt so before without being called on to do it. She said, ‘Well, do it.’ I knew I had been ordained to lay hands on the sick and set apart to do that. She had been washed clean and I anointed her, gave her some oil to take, and then laid hands on her. I told her she would get well if she would believe and not doubt it.” -Susan Sessions Rugh, “Patty Bartlett Sessions: More Than a Midwife”

  1.  At an April 1844 Nauvoo General Conference, Brigham Young declared, "I want a wife that can take care of my chi[ldre]n when I am away — who can pray — lay on hands anoint with oil & baffle the enemy." -Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, Turner, p. 159.     I linked to a review of this book from BYU Magazine, it was really highly reviewed, and a great biography.  

  1. "“Now, brethren, the man that honors his Priesthood, the woman that honors her Priesthood, will receive an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of God.”  - Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 119

  1. Brigham Young, in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, on 14 November 1869, addressed mothers specifically:  “Why do you not live so as to rebuke disease? It is your privilege to do so without sending for the Elders...It is the privilege of a mother to have faith and to administer to her child; this she can do herself, as well as sending for the Elders to have the benefit of their faith." -Journal of Discourses, 13: 155

  1. Brigham Young wrote that Thirza Cahoon, Lois Cutler, and Phebe Woodworth were “taken into the order of the priesthood.” -Brigham Young Diary, 29 October 1843,  Weber State Archives.   A common criticism to this one is that they must have been referring to their sealing to their husbands.  However, Brigham’s diary was explicit that they were sealed to their spouses on completely different days, we are talking months of differences.

  1. Apostle Heber C. Kimball’s diary noted that Brigham Young “appointed W. W. Phelps and P. P. Pratt to instruct the brethren and sisters … more fully into the nature and importance of the blessings and powers of the Holy Priesthood which they had received …”  -Heber C. Kimball diary (written by William Clayton), 14 Dec. 1845, in Smith, An Intimate Chronicle, p. 214-15

  1. Heber C. Kimball also declared, “Was every woman qualified to raise that child [Jesus]?  No.  You will find that Mary was of the Royal Priesthood, which is after the order of God…” -Journal of Discourses 6:125 (that priesthood order is called Melchizedek in D&C 107, which mary held possibly like her Hebrew ancestors Miriam, Debrah, Hulda, and Anna who prophesied in Luke Chapter 2).

  1. President Wilford Woodruff asserted that a woman could be a revelator for the entire church. In April 1894’s  general conference he said: “That hymn [O My Father] is a revelation...given unto us by a woman—Sister Eliza R. Snow. There are a great many sisters who have the spirit of revelation. There is no reason why they should not be inspired as well as men.” -The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff  (Her revelation to the church is one of the earliest statements in Mormon theology on a Heavenly Mother.  And might I just add, I can’t get through this hymn without crying, and sing it to my girls at night.)

  1. Here’s one on phoebe woodruff, you may remember her from the church video Mountain of the Lord, on Wilford Woodruff’s journals, it included their courtship story and how he heard her singing out her window in Nauvoo. (Splice them singing).  Anway...A young Phoebe Woodruff served a mission with her husband, Wilford (future 4th prophet), in 1848.  In the ocean outside Cambridge, MA, she led her new convert,  her 76 year old father Ezra, in and out of the baptismal waters on March 22, 1849.  Wilford wrote, “Mrs Woodruff accompanied her Father to the water And Back again.”  -Wilford Woodruff Journals, LDS Archives    *share story in women’s bible study group, prayer request bc she’s struggling in her role to support her husband but not work side by side with him as a missionary/minister as they build up the church in a new area.*    

  1.  Regarding all missionaries, see D&C 42:11:  “Again I say unto you, that it shall not be given to anyone to go forth to preach my gospel, or to build up my church, except he [or she] be ordained by someone who has authority, and it is known to the church that he [or she] has authority and has been regularly ordained by the heads of the church.”  (gender inclusive [she] added, but the "anyone" is straight from the scriptures. And sister missionaries were called earlier than you might think, xxxx

  1. President Heber J. Grant wrote to a mission president in 1928 that there was "no rule in the Church" that only priesthood bearers could carry the sacrament to the congregation after it was blessed.   -28 June 1928, Heber J Grant Letterbook, LDS Archives

  1. This transcript was preserved by Oakley Idaho Second Ward Relief Society Minute Book in 1909. It is one of many, and its existence signals the practice of blessing and anointing ordinances in preparation for childbirth tied to the Relief Society:  

“We anoint your back, your spinal column that you might be strong and healthy [that] no disease fasten upon it, no accident befall you, Your kidneys that they might be active and healthy and perform their proper functions, your bladder that it might be strong and protected from accident, your sides that your liver, your lungs, and spleen that they might be strong and perform their proper functions, … your breasts that your milk may come freely, and you need not be afflicted with sore nipples as many are, your heart that it might be comforted.

[your baby that it may be] perfect in every joint and limb and muscle, that it might be beautiful to look upon … [and] happy” and that “when [its] full time shall have come that the child shall present right for birth and that the afterbirth shall come at its proper time … you need not flow to excess … We anoint … your thighs that they might be healthy and strong that you might be exempt from cramps and from the bursting of veins … That you might stand upon the earth [and] go in and out of the Temples of God.

We unitedly lay our hands upon you to seal this washing and anointing where with you have been washed and anointed for your safe delivery, for the salvation of you and your child, and we ask God to let his special blessings rest upon you, that you might sleep well at night, that your dreams might be pleasant and that the good spirit might guard and protect you from every evil influence spirit and power that you may go your full time and that every blessing that we have asked God to confer upon you and your offspring may be literally fulfilled that all fear and dread may be taken from you and that you might trust in God. All these blessings, we unitedly seal upon you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”  

*personal story on preparing for the birth of my first child, wanting it to be really special bc I’d been diagnosed with infertility and never know if this would be my only or last child, since it’s only thanks to the miracle of modern medicine I could even conceve, in a very difficult process.*

  1. “Sister Martha Meecham said she had done as much washing and anointing as anyone in this Stake.  Related an experience of a blessing she had given while she was in Salt Lake.  Said she wanted to spend the rest of her life in doing good to others and giving blessings and confirming them. Related of experiences where all had blessed and anointed people.  Said she had written to Pres. J. F. Smith on this sub[ject] and he had told her to keep on and bless and comfort as she had done in the past.” -Relief Society Minutes of the Logan Utah Cache Stake, 1910.  LDS Church History Library, Call Number: LR 1280 14, Logan Utah Cache Stake, Relief Society minutes and records, 1868-1973, pp. 438-40 (view original here)  Corey Howard found this for me, from Churhc archives, I linked to the original manuscript page you can read for yourself.

  1. In 1979 President Spencer W. Kimball was recovering from brain surgery. Bruce R. McConkie and Marion D. Hanks arrived. Hanks anointed the prophet's head.  The apostle invited the prophet's son, and also his wife, Camilla, to place her hands on her husband's head."That was unusual," his son Edward Kimball later wrote. "It seemed right to me, but I would not have felt free to suggest it on my own because of an ingrained sense that the ordinance is a priesthood ordinance."  -Edward Kimball Diary

  1. “Achieving the fulness of the priesthood of the Son of God is the great goal of all faithful Latter-day Saints, because it is the power of God unto salvation and eternal lives.”  -Encyclopedia of Mormonism, I included the link in the pdf, the entire encyclopedia is from byu’s library website.

OK, that’s the last one, if you’ve stuck with me this far, you’ve made it to the end!   I hope these quotes have been helpful for you in your personal study and questions you might have, and of course, don’t take me as the final word, please go to the josesphsmithpapers on josephsmithpapers.org, let me repeat, a project run and owned by the Church, and have a look at all these, keep studying the scriptures, be prayerful, and never give up, we’re taught ever since we’re young to search, ponder, and pray, and that’s what I’m doing right now.   I’m going to end with one more quote from a modern apostle, not about women and the priesthood, but definitely applicable to the studying process, Special Witness of Christ, Deiter F. Uctdorf said, which I quoted in Sunday School just last week, I practically have it memorized, it’s just that good: (splice to his voice)  “Brothers and sisters, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit. Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?”

That iron gate metaphor really struck home to me, for a number of reasons, but let me just share one story to wrap up.  I walked next to Kate on April 5th 2014 with my baby Rosie and my husband Rolf, at the front of the line, when we all dressed in our Sunday best and were permitted to walk onto temple square and wait respectfully in the standby line of the tabernacle.   We crossed the street from the park onto temple square, no problem (well, except for the rain, hail, and wind), nobody stopped us or told us to turn back, we walked for awhile on temple square, past the gorgeous fountain where brides and grooms pose for a kiss, and then we got to the huge iron gate on the east side next to the temple, and it was locked at the moment.  But as fate would have it, a random tourist was on the other side of the gate and was opening it to get through, apparently it wasn’t locked from that side.  He didn’t see us at first, but once he opened it Kate saw our chance and grabbed the wroght iron gate and held it open with one firm hand.  I think he said something like, um, I think that’s supposed to be closed, but she just said, “Thanks!” and and we all got through no problem.  We then walked another few hundred feet to the tabernacle and that’s where we waited in the standby line.  Anyway, I bring this up because I agree with Elder Uctdorf that revelations don’t come until they are wanted and sometimes it’s hard to get beyond what we thought we already knew to thoughtfully question and examine our assumptions and be open to the Spirit of Christ to guide us where we need to be.  I feel my path is here, with OW, that the Lord wanted me to be there that day, with my husband, on sacred ground to me, the place where we were married 6 years before, to physically demonstrate my desire for further light and knowledge bc public advocacy is one of the few options open to women to voice their concerns directly to the Brethren, but here’s there’s the thing, and let me clear:  I’m not asking you to follow me, or Kate Kelly (yes we were at the front of the line that day, but hey that’s just procedural, someone’s gotta be 1st in a line!).  I don't want that.  But I DO want you to follow Jesus Christ, he’s the only one anyone should follow.  And only you, dear listeners, can answer that question of what that means for you personally, where you feel the Lord is asking you to go, or where He wants you to be, or what he wants you to do.  Best of luck in your journey, to that end.  So long, fellow travelers! And thanks for listening.