As a new member of our
church it was ideal for me to be at the FairMormon Conference in
Utah.
I am a thinking person and
if somebody say ”this is true” then I am always trying to see the
other side of the coin.
So I really liked
when Sharon Eubank, whose lecture was called ”This is a womens
church”, started out by talking about the doctrine of
intelligences. She stated that this is unique to Mormonism and how
the doctrine talks about how we always have existed as intelligences.
But then we chose to ally ourselves with our Heavenly Father and
Heavenly Mother.
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Sharon
Eubank is the Director of LDS Charities
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This was intresting.
I have a Lutheran friend here in Finland and she introduced, at
hbt-services, the tradition to pray both to our Heavenly Father and
our Heavenly mother.
I know in our church
that LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley has said that
Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother because Christ
instructed his disciples to address the Heavenly Father in their
prayers And I am not talking about prayers here. I am saying that it
was intresting because this was the first time I have heard anybody
in our churc talking about our Heavenly Mother (besides the
missionaries once, briefly)
Sister Eubank said that we define
ourselves in different roles and for her the first role is that she
is a woman and she believes womanhood has roles related to binding,
connecting and bridging. From her own experience, being in an image
of the divine feminine, this is what she feels responsible for.
And one role for women is to establish
the house described in D&C.
”Organize yourselves; prepare every
needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house
of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory,
a house of order, a house of God; ” (D&C 88:119)
For her that is not a literal house or
even necessarily the temple. It is a generation of life, of community
One way of bulding is going on a
mission an sister Eubank was asked if she was excited about young
women going serving missions. Sister Eubank herself served as a
missonary here in Finland
and said that her mission taught her
how to articulate before people.- If we can deepen people’s
understanding of doctrine and help them learn to be articulate, it is
fantastic, she said.
She was also asked about women and the
priesthood and said she belives that anyone who is endowed holds
certain aspects of the priesthood and the church is just on the verge
of understanding what that means.
I have heard a lot of criticism from
non members about womens role in the church and sometimes I, as a
man, haven`t been able to answer. For sister Eubank our doctrine is
the most moderate and enlightening and empowering doctrine that
exists for women.
For me it is a church for all children
to our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother.
To sister Eubank I replied: Kiitos
valaisit minua (Thank You You enlighted me)
