Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings by Joanna Brooks Rachel Hunt Steenblik & Hannah Wheelwright

Author:Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik & Hannah Wheelwright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

After the prayer, Abbot returns to the pulpit.

ABBOT: I am happy to report that our numbers are growing: we have had six babies born this last month alone! I’ll just mention each one, and you can congratulate the happy parents after service.

Sister Jean Hammond and her husband Dale have a new little girl, to be named Rachel Sariah Hammond. Sister and Brother Ellen Taylor, a girl to be named Ellen Fielding Taylor, Jr. Sister and Brother Margaret Jones, a girl to be named Elizabeth Eleanor Jones. As you know, this baby is Sister and Brother Jones’ sixth, but the very first girl they’ve managed to have, and I just want to share with you what Margaret said this past week. Someone who didn’t know the family asked her how many children she had. “Six,” she said, “and they’re all girls but five!”

Now in case you think we’ve forgotten the opposite sex, Sister and Brother Anne Henderson are welcoming a little boy to their home; he’s to be named LeWinky Henderson. Gale and Jimmy Jenson also have a new boy, to be named Tippy Tom Jenson; and Meredith and Billy Joe Gordon have a son whom they have named Fortitude Oak Gordon.

Well, our congratulations to all the families and their new members.

Right now, it’s time for a special number from our Singing Fathers. They will announce their own selection.

(The four men dressed in black trousers come to the front of the stand, cluster together, place their arms on each other’s shoulders, and set themselves for singing. At this point, one man whispers to another, who steps forward.)

QUARTET MEMBER: We will sing “O My Mother.”

O my Mother, Thou that dwellest in the high and glorious place,

When shall I regain Thy presence, and again behold Thy face?

In Thy holy habitation, did my spirit once reside?

In my first primeval childhood, was I nurtured near Thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose Thou has placed me here on Earth,

And withheld the recollection of my former friends and birth,

Yet ofttimes a secret something whispered, “You’re a stranger here,”

And I felt that I had wandered from a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call Thee Mother, through Thy Spirit from on high,

But until the key of knowledge was restored, I knew not why.

In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare.

Truth is reason. Truth eternal tells me I’ve two parents there.

When I leave this frail existence, when I lay this mortal by,

Mother, Father, may I meet You in Your royal courts on high?

Then, at length, when I’ve completed all You sent me forth to do,

With Your mutual approbation let me come and dwell with You.*

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