I started to hear that the temple ceremony had been updated - again. My friends were saying that Christ was more prominently featured and that things were explained more clearly. I heard an older woman in my ward saying, “I wish we’d had this all along. Everything would have been so much easier to understand.
The kinds of creative navigation of choices that I have seen discussed and modeled in Mormon feminism have served me well in life. I can acquiesce to expectations, I can resist expectations, I can create or find other options that allow me to preserve my integrity.
Too often, we hesitate, and think we need permission or assignment or official instruction or proof from community that we are doing ministry the right way. These women did not even hesitate. They saw a woman burdened, and they stepped into the space. Their authority came from seeing me, my existence, not even concerned about any differences, and loving me because I existed.