Jean A. Stevens becomes first woman in history to pray at LDS General Conference
Though there have been 183 Annual General Conferences of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Saturday was the first time in history where a woman has said the prayer in one of the sessions.
Jean A. Stevens, first counselor in the General Primary Presidency, closed the Saturday morning session with a prayer.
Recently, a “Let Women Pray” campaign was initiated by the same group who encouraged women to wear pants to church instead of dresses or skirts in December 2012 to demonstrate their desire for gender equality. The group made a Facebook page, petitioning members to write letters to the First Presidency of the church in an effort for women to be able to say opening and closing prayers in General Conferences.
Brittni Gamble Bunce, one of the creators of the group, said the idea came from her then three-year-old daughter Lydia. While watching the October conference in 2011, Lydia asked when a girl was going to say the prayer.
“I had never noticed that a woman had not prayed,” Bunce said. “Lydia watched very intently and a girl never prayed.”
Bunce said she did some research and found that a female had never prayed during a session of General Conference. That’s when she started the online campaign.
According to the Facebook page, about 1,600 letters were delivered to the general authorities of the church.
The page’s cover photo now reads, “Prayers are answered.”
However, church spokesman Eric Hawkins told the Los Angeles Times the letters had nothing to do with the decision to have a female lead the prayer in conference.
“The prayer assignments were made before that campaign started,” Hawkins said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first of similar prayers to be led by women. It’s a change, it’s a new thing.”
Bunce said she’s not sure if their letter campaign had anything to do with the fact that a woman was selected to say a prayer, and she can’t take the credit.
“I was extremely excited,” Bunce said.
During the conference, church President Thomas S. Monson announced the construction of two new temples, one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the other in Cedar City, Utah.
McKell Hall, a USU student from Cedar City, said she thought there might be a temple being planned for her hometown, but didn’t want to get her hopes up until it was officially announced.
“There had been rumors going on,” said Hall, a senior. “We’re in Utah, so there are temples going up everywhere. It’s not too surprising.”
Until now, the nearest temple to Cedar City was in St. George, Utah.
“It’s hard to go to the temple often when you live in Cedar City,” Hall said. She said with the travel there and back plus the two-hour session, not many people can find the time to make the trip.
“It will be cool to have a temple in my own town,” Hall said. “Just looking at it helps me so much.”
Cedar City will be the 17th temple in Utah, including the announced Payson and Provo, Utah, temples. There are 141 operating temples across the world with 29 temples under construction and in the planning stage.
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter @tmerabradley