A Sunday at church in a Flemish ward

How does one best introduce Mormonism to outsiders, and in particular as it relates to gender and agency? As a rule one would start with an overview of main aspects, sustained by references to various academic studies. However, such an overview would remain quite theoretical for those unfamiliar with Mormonism. Often one of the first questions of those interested in a religion is how the faithful worship and how they interact with the divine and between each other. For some religions, the media relay such images, for example of Muslims in a mosque as they pray or listen to an imam, or of Eastern-Orthodox followers packed in a small church surrounded by candles, icons, and the distinctive vestments of the clergy. Such images also give an impression of gender relations, merely by the absence or secondary position of women in the sacred space. For Mormonism, direct questions related to gender and agency would be: What is the place of women during worship? Can they be involved in liturgy or rituals? How can they use their agency?

A visit to a typical Mormon religious meeting would offer some initial answers and convey a general impression of Mormon social life. Here I propose to attend a standard

“sacrament meeting” in a local building of “de Kerk van Jezus Christus van de Heiligen der Laatste Dagen.” The description comes from my extensive past experiences as a child there, visits in subsequent years, and from more recent participatory observation in May 2019. I will include a few remarks on gender and agency, but will sidestep an academic analysis at this point. I will also translate typical Mormon terms by their official Dutch equivalent.

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Photo by Bart Torfs

Mormon church buildings are quite standard around the world. Flanders makes no exception. The sign at the entrance asserts “iedereen welkom.” This is the place where the “ward” (wijk) meets: a congregation or parish of church members from the surrounding area. Like most standard Mormon church buildings around the world, this

“kerkgebouw” is a sober edifice. Sacrament meeting starts at 10 A.M. and lasts an hour.

When entering some 10 to 15 minutes before starting time, visitors will have the impression of walking into a small college building before a lecture or in a small cultural hall preceding a concert.

Is this a church? With the exception of a framed image of Jesus, there are no religious symbols: no crosses, statues, candles, or icons.

In the hallway men and women are chatting lively. There is plenty of racial diversity: this ward counts a few dozen members originally from Nigeria, Ghana, and the DRC. Kids toddle among the adults. Handshakes, hugs, and witty welcoming comments occur as more people enter. They all seem to know each other, but the unknown visitor, immediately addressed as “brother” or “sister,” will equally get a firm handshake and be considered included.

Photo by Bart Torfs

21 Men and women mingle

The hallway shows a number of doors leading to different rooms, mainly classrooms, a few offices, a kitchen, restrooms. On one side of the hallway two wider doors give entrance to the largest room of the building, called the chapel.

It has the format of a hospitable auditorium, with chestnut wood panels and rows of cushioned chairs facing the slightly elevated podium or stand. The chapel can seat some one hundred fifty people. In spite of its name

“chapel,” even here we see no symbols of sacred space, not even a picture. The room is part of a larger multi-functional area of the building. In the back, the wall consists of easily movable accordion dividers. When the dividers are closed, as now on Sunday, there are classrooms behind them. When all the dividers are opened, the chapel can double in

size and become a cultural hall, for a dance, a concert, or a large dinner gathering. But now it is Sunday and a reverent atmosphere predominates as people leave the noisy hall and enter quietly.

Families sit together, men and women mingle—a first item to notice for gender relations. A number of families have babies and small children. Their noise, the strollers, and a coming and going to the restroom are a fixed feature of a Mormon sacrament meeting. Most men and women wear their Sunday best, but, certainly among the men, a number are more casually dressed. A few women wear pants.

Photo by Bart Torfs

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Women on the stand, but only males have the priesthood

A piano and an organ occupy one side of the stand. A young man is at the organ (but next week it could be a woman) and plays prelude music, a hymn, or something from Bach or Buxtehude. The center of the stand has a pulpit with a microphone. There are chairs facing the audience behind it. Those who will participate in the program are now taking some of these seats. There is a male visitor from the “stake” (ring), the higher institutional level above the ward, who will give a sermon. For our focus on gender, we notice women arriving on the stand. One will conduct the singing, another will take care of translation from Dutch to English, whispering in a microphone connected wirelessly to headphones available among the audience. Usually a dozen or more non-Dutch speakers attend the meeting and English is the lingua franca of Mormonism. A teenage girl is also joining on the stand: she is one of the two speakers featured for today’s meeting.

Meanwhile three men arrive also, greet the women cheerfully, and sit down in the center of the podium: they are the bishop and his two counselors. No trace of ritual vestments: each wears a business suit, the one more casual than the other. Together they are called the “bishopric” (bisschap). They are the male leaders of the ward. The bishopric serves for a few years, then their superiors on stake level will ask three other men from the ward to take over the leadership. The bishop has a normal profession in real life. he may be a plumber, a roof constructor, an attorney, or a butcher. He may be in his late twenties or late sixties. His two counselors also have regular jobs during the week. Each of them has a female spouse and a family. It is not surprising to see a two-year old child of a bishop run up to him from the audience. He gets a hug and a few whispered words from his dad. The bishop’s wife quickly comes to the stand to get the boy back to her seat.

She smiles an apology to the audience. It all happens naturally in an informal atmosphere.

Photo by Bart Torfs

23 At the other side of the stand, on a table, the trays for passing the sacrament are being set up: trays with slices of bread and trays with small cups filled with water, which will next be covered with a white tablecloth. Behind the table two men take their seats, facing the audience. One is about sixteen, black, the other must be close to eighty, from Hispanic origin. These two men have been assigned to bless the sacrament this Sunday. Next week others will do it, since nearly all male church members in the congregation have received the priesthood needed for the ordinance of the sacrament. Here no women are involved. In front of them, on the first row of the audience, four other men are now seated. Two are teenagers, the two others young adults.

They have been assigned to pass the trays to the audience today. Here also, only males ordained to the priesthood can do this.

A sister prays

The meeting starts with one of the bishop’s counselors welcoming the congregation in a jovial way. No ritual formality. He has some short announcements on coming activities:

the father-son camping trip, the choir rehearsal, the regional Family History event, the Open House for the renovated Frankfurt Temple, and the afternoon social trip for the adult sisters to a local park. For the visitor it should be at once clear that this church is also a social community.

Then the counselor announces the opening hymn to be sung, number 76 from the hymnbook, “De Heer is mijn Herder.” “Next sister Peeters will offer the opening prayer.”

As the congregation sings the last words of the hymn, sister Peeters, a woman in her late seventies, walks with some difficulty from her seat in the audience to the pulpit. Those who know her well are aware of her underprivileged socioeconomic background and the hard life she has had. She joined the church years ago. In the ward she is notorious for her cheeriness, her hilarious bluntness, and her immense gratitude for the harbor of friendship she found in this Mormon ward. Now standing before the congregation, eyes closed, confident, she delivers a personal prayer, with a dialectal accent, on behalf of the ward, addressed to Heavenly Father. It includes expressing gratitude for Christ, for the gospel, for families and friendship, for the good people who help her get to church on Sunday, and asking for blessings for two sick persons in the ward and for an inspirational Sunday—”in de naam van Jezus Christus. Amen.” She walks back to her place, helped from the podium by one of the men at the sacrament table.

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A short reflection at this point. The Mormon audience experienced sister Peeters’

participation and prayer as the most normal thing, but an attentive visitor would notice some peculiarities: a focused female engagement in a sacred moment of the service, the woman’s agency to freely formulate her own words in public, and the active inclusion in the worship of an individual with what appears little education. At the same time, only the male bishopric decides who is asked to pray. However, their sensitivity to bring women to the foreground is something that has been growing since the 1990s, under pressure of independent Mormon feminism. More about that later in the dissertation.

Ward business: releases and callings — quite a few women

Next the bishop’s counselor has some “ward business” (wijkaangelegenheden) to present to the members. As happens on an almost weekly basis, there are some people to be

“released” (ontheven) from positions they have held or to be “called” (geroepen) to new positions. Indeed, most members in the congregation, both men and women, have some

“assignment” (taak) in the complex structure of the ward. All are volunteers making up the lay ministry. Positions are usually held for a few years and then changed, which explains the rotations as numerous positions are to be filled in the various “auxiliaries”

(hulporganisaties) that take care of lessons and charitable and social activities. Today one sister is being released as a teacher in the Sunday School, but then immediately presented to serve as counselor in the Primary presidency—the auxiliary for children up to age eleven. Another woman, a recently baptized convert, is announced as new advisor in the Young Women auxiliary. Yet another as secretary in the Relief Society—the auxiliary for all adult women. The bishop’s counselor asks them to briefly stand as he mentions their names. For each person presented, he asks the audience to show their support by raising the right hand. This “sustaining” (ondersteuning) is always unanimous.

Some background: each of these persons has been informed beforehand of the release or the calling through an interview with a member of the bishopric. In the case of a calling, the standard approach is: “We would like you to serve as ... Would you be willing to accept this calling?” Dedicated members usually accept such callings without hesitation, which raises an issue of the level of agency: though they have freely accepted their church membership, the implication of membership leads to obligations. On the other hand, people called to positions can always refuse or ask for time to consider. They can also ask to be released of positions for whatever reason.

25 The sacrament in silence, men in action

The “ward business” is followed by the blessing and passing of the sacrament, which will take fifteen to twenty minutes, pending the number of people present. The hymn “Bij ‘t gebed voor brood en water” is sung while the two men at the sacrament table uncover the trays of the white tablecloth and break the slices of bread into small pieces. After the hymn one of the two says a fixed prayer over the bread, asking God “to bless and sanctify this bread to the

souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son.” Next the four boys and men assigned to pass the sacrament do so by presenting the trays row by row so anyone can partake of a piece of bread. Often the tray is passed from hand to hand in a row: women also do this. The same procedure is then repeated for the cups of water. The passing of the sacrament proceeds in total silence, without music, and is considered the most sacred moment of the meeting. Total silence is relative: babies and small children keep reminding us of their presence, but no one in the audience minds.

A girl gives a sermon: men listen

It is now time for the “talks” (toespraken), which the bishop’s counselor announces. A

“youth speaker” is first. Justine, 17, is a girl from a sub-Saharan family who has been living in Belgium since the early 1990s. Justine thus grew up here and speaks flawless Dutch. She stands behind the pulpit without any sign of nervousness and delivers the talk she has prepared, partly reading from her notes, partly adding personal comments. Her assigned topic is about the priesthood. This talk deserves some extra attention as it reveals some basic tenets of gender relations in Mormonism.

Justine starts by reminding the audience of common Mormon knowledge: the priesthood, defined as “het gezag en de macht om in Gods naam te handelen,” was lost through apostasy in previous centuries, but was restored in 1829 by heavenly messengers who laid their hands on Joseph Smith and conferred the priesthood to him. That way ordinances such as baptism, passing the sacrament, the giving of blessings by the laying on of hands, and work in the temple can now be done with proper divine authority.

Especially in each family, Justine insists, the priesthood is essential. A father with the priesthood can lay his hands on a child’s head and give a blessing—which means speaking words of comfort and uttering promises by the power of the priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ. Justine adds: “Ik heb tijdens mijn kinderjaren niet veel zegeningen van

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mijn vader gehad, maar ik kan elke zegen die ik van mijn vader als klein kind kreeg nog herinneren.”¹ She then quotes from a 2013 general conference talk given by Carole Stephens, first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society—one of the top functions women hold for the worldwide church. Quotes from such talks at “general conference”—held twice a year in Salt Lake City for the whole church—are common material to re-use for talks on the ward level. Justine reads from Carole Stephen’s report of her visit to three homes in Honduras where women missed the presence of a husband with the priesthood.² During these visits Carole Stephen was accompanied by some priesthood leaders:

Toen ik die getrouwe vrouwen in Honduras leerde kennen, kon ik zien dat ze hun best deden om te zorgen dat hun gezin actief in het evangelie bleef. Niettemin hadden deze zusters allemaal behoeften die nog niet geheel waren vervuld. In alle drie de huizen die we bezochten, vroeg een wijze priesterschapsleider of ze al een priesterschapszegen hadden ontvangen. Het antwoord was iedere keer ‘nee’. De zusters vroegen die dag allemaal om een priesterschapszegen en kregen die.

Allemaal huilden ze en uitten hun dankbaarheid voor de troost, leiding, bemoediging en inspiratie die ze van hun hemelse Vader ontvingen door middel van een waardige priesterschapsdrager.

Justine explains that the way to help each of these sisters is to make proper use of the ward priesthood: the bishop, the leaders of the elders’ quorum, and the assigned ministering priesthood holders—each should be ready to help a sister at any given time or to give a blessing when needed. She then utters the following sentence: “Ik heb nu wel het genoegen dat ik een vriend heb die het priesterschap draagt, maar voor een alleenstaande vrouw of moeder is het belangrijk dat ook zij het priesterschap in hun leven betrekken.”³ This reference to a Mormon boyfriend she is dating contains a familiar message: Mormon girls expect future husbands to honor their priesthood. Justine even clarifies her aim by quoting from modern-day Mormon scripture about the duties of those who hold the priesthood:

... dat de rechten van het priesterschap onafscheidelijk verbonden zijn met de machten van de hemel, en dat de machten van de hemel niet beheerst noch aangewend kunnen worden, dan alleen volgens de beginselen van de gerechtigheid.

Dat die ons kunnen worden verleend, dat is waar, maar wanneer wij trachten onze

1 Translated: “I did not receive many blessings from my father during my childhood, but I can still remember every blessing I received as a small child from my father.”

2 The talk by Carole Stephen is readily available on the church website, as are all general conference talks, in English and translated in dozens of languages. See for the original English of Stephen’s talk:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/do-we-know-what-we-have.

Accessed September 15, 2019.

3 Translated: “I now have the pleasure of having a friend who holds the priesthood, but for a single woman or single mother, it is important that they also include the priesthood in their lives.”

27 zonden te bedekken, of onze hoogmoed, onze ijdele eerzucht te bevredigen, of in enige mate van onrechtvaardigheid zeggenschap of heerschappij of dwang op de ziel van de mensenkinderen uit te oefenen, zie, dan trekken de hemelen zich terug;

de Geest van de Heer is gegriefd; en wanneer die Zich heeft teruggetrokken, vaarwel dan het priesterschap of het gezag van die man ... Geen macht of invloed kan of dient krachtens het priesterschap te worden gehandhaafd dan alleen door overreding, door lankmoedigheid, door mildheid en zachtmoedigheid, en door ongeveinsde liefde. (Leer en Verbonden 121:36–41)

Justine ends her talk with the usual, formulaic “En ik zeg deze dingen in de naam van Jezus Christus.” Her talk lasted six minutes.

Noteworthy is that the male bishopric assigned the topic of “the priesthood” to a young female. This is not abnormal, but it is not clear what they intended by doing so,

Noteworthy is that the male bishopric assigned the topic of “the priesthood” to a young female. This is not abnormal, but it is not clear what they intended by doing so,