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What does it mean that Latter-day Saint (LDS) women are priestesses, prophetesses, queens, and matriarchs? In this Mother's Day teaching episode, host Tia Smith explores the divine identity and roles of women in the plan of salvation — drawing on the work of BYU scholar Barbara Morgan Gardner, who distinguishes the ecclesiastical (church-administration) order of the priesthood from the patriarchal, or familial, order women enter through temple covenants. Tia walks through the scriptural pattern of each role: the priestess as a mediator who brings ancestors to God through temple work; the prophetess who receives revelation and helps deliver Israel (Miriam, Deborah, Anna); the queen who, like Esther, is raised up "for such a time as this"; and the matriarch who, like Eve and Sarah, gives and saves life across the generations. She also teaches the distinctive Latter-day Saint doctrine of a Heavenly Mother (Elder Dale G. Renlund, "Your Divine Nature and Eternal Destiny," April 2022), and closes with her own thinning-of-the-veil experience in the temple, when she sensed generations of women standing shoulder to shoulder in protection. A Mother's Day reminder of the worth, power, and divine destiny of every daughter of God.
Q: What does it mean that Latter-day Saint women are priestesses?
A: In this episode, Tia Smith teaches that a priestess, like a priest, acts as a mediator between people and God — and that Latter-day Saint women fulfill this most powerfully in the temple, standing as proxy for ancestors who cannot yet make covenants and drawing them nearer to God. She frames this within the patriarchal, or familial, order of the priesthood that women enter through temple covenants — a distinction drawn from the work of BYU scholar Barbara Morgan Gardner ("The Priesthood Power of Women").
Q: What do Latter-day Saints believe about Heavenly Mother?
A: Latter-day Saints believe that all people are children of Heavenly Parents — a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. As Elder Dale G. Renlund taught, the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother "comes by revelation and is a distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints" ("Your Divine Nature and Eternal Destiny," April 2022). In this episode, Tia Smith teaches that women are patterned after Heavenly Mother and can come to understand their divine nature and destiny through personal revelation.
Q: Do Latter-day Saint women have priesthood power, and what roles were they foreordained to?
A: Tia Smith teaches, drawing on scripture and latter-day prophets, that women receive priesthood power through the covenants they make in the temple, and that they were foreordained — as President Spencer W. Kimball taught — to their own divine assignments, just as men were foreordained to priesthood responsibilities. She describes four scriptural roles women are called to fill — priestess, prophetess, queen, and matriarch — each part of the same eternal pattern of gathering and saving God's children on both sides of the veil.
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CITATIONS:
Joseph F. Smith, Teaching of Presidents of the Church, 139,140, Theodore M. Burton, Ensign (June 1987): 14, Abraham 4: 27-28, The Teachings of Harold B. Lee:, ed. Clyde J. Williams (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1996), 20–21., Gospel Topics Essays, “Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple and Woman”, "Priests"- Bible Dictionary, Alma 13:3,10-12, Women and Priesthood Power, “All the Spiritual Blessings of the Church”, Becky Craven, “The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 102). Book of Mormon Student Manual Chapter 26: Alma 13–16, Russell M. Nelson, '25, TPJS p. 227, Guide to the Scriptures, "Prophetess", Luke 2:37, Liahona ,“Women in Moses’s Life”, Heather B. Moore, 21 Mar 2022 , Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, Judges 4-5, Isaiah 49:23, JD 8:348, Heber C. Kimball, Gathering of the People of God, Etc., JD 8:348, Joseph Fielding Smith, “Relief Society-an Aid to the Priesthood,” Relief Society Magazine, Jan. 1959, 5-6, Esther 4: 14, 31-32, Russell M Nelson, '15 , Russell M. Nelson, '87, John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), 308., M. Russell Ballard, '14, Dallin H. Oaks, '93, Camille Fronk Olson, “The Matriarchs: Administrators of God's Covenantal Blessings,” in From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), 385‒425., Gospel Topics Essays, “Mother in Heaven”, D&C 132:19-20, Moses 5:11, Dallin H. Oaks, '95, D&C 138: 38-39, D&C 84:31-32, Joy D. Jones, March 1, 2020, Harold B. Lee, “The Influence and Responsibility of Women,” Relief Society Magazine 51 (February 1964): 85. , Dale Renlund '22 , Spencer W. Kimball, '78:, Neil L. Maxwell, '78 ,Elder Glenn L. Pace in a BYU Devotional, 2010
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