I assure you that the message of Mormon women is needed by women of the world today.

― Belle S. Spafford, “Latter-day Saint Women in Today’s Changing World,” February 1975

Belle Spafford served as General Relief Society President of the Church for nearly 30 years, from 1945 to 1972. During that time she also served as a delegate to the National Women’s Council in New York for 42 years, including as the President of the Council from 1968 to 1970. Her tenure as General Relief Society President began at the close of World War II and later encompassed President David O. McKay’s mission of expanding the reach of the Church internationally to bring the Gospel to many nations. President Spafford served as General Relief Society President under six different Presidents of the Church. [Read more…]

“For some unknown reason there is constantly appearing the false rationalization
that at one time in the long-ago, virtue was easy and that now it is difficult.”

― Gordon B. Hinckley, Conference Report, October 1964, pp. 116-119

Gordon B. Hinckley was called as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1958, as an Apostle in September 1961, and then served as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death on January 27, 2008. He is often remembered for his efforts in expanding the building of temples throughout the world so that members of the Church had better access to the spiritual uplift and fortification that they offer. During his tenure as President of the Church, the number of temples worldwide increased from 47 to 124 with 14 others announced or under construction — a very rapid surge in temple building during his 13 years as President.

The Church also built the Conference Center in Salt Lake City under his direction, and he presided over the renovation and rededication of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. He was an astute, media-savvy leader, adept at public relations, and tireless in his care and interest for the well-being and progress of the Church as a whole and its individual members. The Psalmist wrote “he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4), a description aptly applied to President Hinckley’s stewardship, despite being the oldest man to have ever served as President of the Church (as of November 2, 2006 when he surpassed David O. McKay on this count). It could be accurately observed that the affairs of the Church have never been better managed than under the care of President Hinckley. [Read more…]

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely
for the hateful words and actions of the bad people
but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

― Martin Luther King, Jr.

Looking upon his people “seared in the flames of withering injustice”[1], God told Moses that he had observed their affliction and sorrows, had heard their cries, and that he intended “to bring them up out of [Egypt] unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8, KJV).

Thousands of years later, God looked upon another of his peoples. Though this people had been technically emancipated from American chattel slavery — one of the most pronounced moral evils in the modern era — fully 100 years previously, they were still “sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,” living “on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” in this American promised land. Through the words of some of the most powerful biblical prophets (Moses, Isaiah, the Psalmist, Amos), and through His Holy Spirit, God whispered to a modern prophet, inspiring Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. to demand, on behalf of not just “his people” but also all Americans, payment upon the great American “promissory note” signed with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which guaranteed “the riches of freedom and the security of justice” to all Americans. [Read more…]

Mormon Lectionary Project

The Epiphany

Isaiah 60:1-6, Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-12, 1 Nephi 13:40-42

The Collect: Our Father in Heaven, we thank thee for the life of thy Only Begotten Son who is our Good Shepherd leading us through the darkness in the paths of salvation just as the light of thy star led wise men in ancient days, and all people, to thy Son’s presence; and we ask thee to ever fortify our faith in Him, through the latter-day revelations of Him and the Restoration of thy Priesthood authority, by which we as disciples of Jesus Christ may join in the act of anointing each other kings and queens, priests and priestesses unto thee, the Most High God, as our Lord was once Anointed as the Messiah to reign with thee and thy Holy Spirit, One God, now and for ever. Amen. [Read more…]

Mormon Lectionary Project

Christmas II

Isaiah 62:6-12, Psalm 97, Titus 3:4-7, Luke 2:1-7, 8-20, Mosiah 5:7-9

The Collect: Heavenly Father, as we celebrate thy Son’s birth of the virgin Mary this day, we thank thee that thou hast sent him as a beacon in the gathering darkness, and we ask thee to lead us to this light, granting us power through thy Spirit to overcome the natural man as we learn to trust the Grace available to us through the Atonement of thy Son in our effort to create a Zion based on the teachings of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we give honor and glory, together with thee and thy Spirit, One God, now and for ever. Amen. [Read more…]

Helmuth Hübener, a 16-year-old Mormon youth living in Hitler’s Germany, exhibited unprecedented moral courage in opposing the propaganda machine of the Nazi regime in the summer of 1941. For his trouble he was arrested on February 5, 1942 (less than a month after turning 17), brutally interrogated and later tortured in Gestapo prisons in Hamburg and Berlin, and then finally beheaded by guillotine in the Gestapo’s Berlin Plötzensee prison on October 27, 1942 as the youngest person (at age 17) to be sentenced by Hitler’s special “People’s Court” and executed for conspiracy to commit treason against the Nazi regime. [Read more…]

In July and August 1940, a Japanese Christian Samurai working for the Foreign Ministry of the Empire of Japan as Consul-General in Kaunas, Lithuania did the unthinkable. Ignoring direct orders from his superiors in Tokyo on at least three occasions, Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara instead counseled with his wife Yukiko and, influenced by old Samurai wisdom[1] and the Book of Lamentations[2], together they issued between 2,500 and 3,500 exit/transit visas[3] to Eastern European Jews desperately seeking to escape the terrifying advance of Nazi armies through Eastern Europe via Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania at the time. The Japanese consulate in Kaunas was these Jews’ last hope because the Soviet Union had annexed Lithuania as its armies simultaneously advanced westward and ordered all embassies and consulates closed. But following his conscience, Sugihara had presciently applied for, and providentially was granted, a 20 day extension to keep his consulate open in Kaunas. Only the Japanese and Dutch consuls remained. That was when the Jews requested Sugihara’s help and, finding him receptive[4], was what led to crowds of thousands of Jews gathering outside the gate of the consulate. [Read more…]

Mormon Lectionary Project

The Feast of William Wilberforce, 1833

Leviticus 26:12-13 (KJV), Psalm 146:5-10 (NRSV), Jeremiah 22:13 (KJV), Micah 3:5-12 (KJV), Matthew 25:31-40 (KJV), Galatians 3:23-29 (KJV), James 5:4, 1 Nephi 17:24-26, Mosiah 29:40, Doctrine & Covenants 101:79

The Collect: O Father, Thou who hast raised up Moses to lead Thy Children out of bondage, let us take inspiration from Thy servant, William Wilberforce, a latter-day Moses, to devote our lives in Thy Church to Thy righteousness in accordance with the universal moral law, becoming instruments in Thy hands to advocate the cause of those who are in bondage and learning that we must never become an obstacle to others’ inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; for the sake of Him who gave His life for us, Thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [Read more…]

Mormon Lectionary Project

Official Declaration 2

Numbers 27:1-7 (NRSV), Psalm 87 (KJV), Acts 10:19-33 (KJV), Galatians 3:26-29 (KJV), 2 Nephi 26:33, Jacob 3:9, Abraham 2:9-11

The Collect: Heavenly Father, who revealed Thy Gospel through Thy Son so that all who believe and are baptized could become the seed of Abraham and heirs to the promise, grant that we may learn from the process involved in receiving the 1978 priesthood revelation, accepting that Thou hast yet many great and important things to reveal concerning Thy Kingdom and renewing our gratitude and respect for the priesthood power that Thou hast restored and once again made accessible to all, Thy own power which blesses our lives continually, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [Read more…]