198 - Evolution of Women Doing Healing Rituals | Church History Matters I Women & Priesthood Series

Church History Matters

Scripture Central

Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 70 minutes

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Summary

In this episode, hosts Lisa Tait, Casey Griffiths and Scott Woodward explore a fascinating and often overlooked chapter in Latter-day Saint history: the role of women in performing healing rituals. Drawing on early Church records, personal journals, and historical accounts, they highlight how women in the 19th-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exercised profound faith by administering to the sick, offering blessings, and participating in sacred acts of healing. Figures like Eliza R. Snow and other Relief Society leaders emerge as powerful examples of women who understood healing as a spiritual gift rooted in faith, compassion, and covenant relationships. As the discussion unfolds, Casey, Scott and Lisa examine how these practices developed over time and how Church leadership gradually clarified the relationship between healing rituals and priesthood authority. While modern practices differ from those of the early Church, the episode emphasizes continuity in the principle that faith in Jesus Christ brings healing and power into individuals’ lives. This thoughtful conversation invites viewers to better understand the historical context of women’s spiritual contributions and to appreciate the enduring influence of their faith within Latter-day Saint theology.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Women have the right to administer, and the first presidency calls it a privilege.
0:06.0	As soon as we start defining a practice as a privilege, it can be revoked.
0:12.0	Another factor to consider is the temple reforms that healing rituals in the temple were to be discontinued.
0:19.0	This eliminates officially sanctioned site for women's administration
0:23.6	to the sick. There's this divergence between the traditional healing practices and modern medicine.
0:31.6	There is an increasing preference that's being shown for priesthood administration.
0:36.6	They're taking things that were not as well-defined previously and defining them.
0:42.5	At the same time, these healing practices declined.
0:45.0	There was sort of an enshrinement of motherhood.
0:47.1	There's no question that the net result is a loss of something for women.
0:53.8	Maybe we overid it.
0:58.1	Hello, Lisa, hello Scott.
1:00.1	Hello, Casey, hello Scott.
1:02.5	Hi, guys.
1:04.1	Nice to be back with you again.
1:06.2	And this is us continuing our series on women in the church.
1:14.1	This is kind of a part two, though. I mean,
1:19.0	it's our fifth episode in the series, but last time we were talking about women's spiritual gifts and healings, and there was just too much to talk about to fit into one episode. So we decided
1:25.0	to have a cliffhanger. And now we're... Big cliffhanger.
1:28.6	Big cliffhanger. Yeah, you probably spent the last week in fear, you know, biting your
1:32.6	fingernails, wondering what was going to happen. What's going to happen?
1:36.7	So maybe we need to do a previously on church history matters sort of thing.
	...

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