Today was the ward’s primary program. Sophie (age 5) stood up to talk about her blessings and said “I’m thankful that Heavenly Father loves me and for Heavenly Mother too …….” It made me smile. My ward in Alexandria, VA seemed unconcerned about the mention of Heavenly Mother in sacrament meeting. And it made me wonder how the church-at-large is doing with “over the pulpit” mentions of Heavenly Mother.
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Since it’s a doctrine we all believe, I don’t think mentions freak people out. I think more people are afraid of getting in trouble than eager to get others in trouble.
Or so it seems to me.
I went with “other”… she has not been mentioned in my ward so far as I can recall, so I don’t know what would happen. I like to think that people would be interested and refreshed at the opening of the subject for discussion.
I mentioned Heavenly Mother in my talk last month, in terms of the Proclamation on the Family. I just rephrased the “heavenly parents” language, saying something like, “We are children of heavenly parents, sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother” and repeated that a few times, “Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.” Out of the comments I got on my talk, none mentioned this.
There has been no problems with all sorts of mentions of Heavenly Mother in church. I have mentioned Her once and made allusion to Her divine role in another talk. Of course, these were both on Mother’s Day, when such mentions feel most appropriate to the subject.
I gave a Mother’s Day talk last year and gave Heavenly Mother a paragraph or two. Just her. And everyone loved it and thought it was great. 🙂
I chose other. It’s part of our doctrine and I think non-speculative, mentions of Her wouldn’t be a problem. I honestly think people just forget about Her (which makes me sad). I bore my testimony in RS and talked about my personal relationship I’m trying to develop with Her. My RS pres looked a little uncomfortable, some people teared up, some stared, some smiled, but no one has ever said anything about it to me personally so… I dont really know!
I think it would depend on the ward, I think I may have been in your ward about 20 years ago. The ward in Alexandria is much more Progressive, much more open minded, especially since, there tends to be a lot of University Students, and government types.
I make it a point to specifically mention Heavenly Mother by name in every Sacrament Meeting talk I give. Sometimes I have to get creative to work it into the topic, but no one has made a fuss about it yet. I also try to quote from female leaders whenever possible. You know, “Be the change you want to see” and all.
I guess I don’t understand why this is an issue. The Primary manuals (at least for Valiants) are explicit that we have a Heavenly Father and Mother, so she is repeating what she learned in Primary. Our church leaders have borne testimony of Heavenly Mother, so why wouldn’t we?
We were asked not to pray to Heavenly Mother (or to Christ). And it may be unwise to speculate about Her, as we also don’t speculate about Heavenly Father, who we don’t really know much about either.
But to mention Heavenly Mother in general terms, as someone who loves us and we lived with in the pre-existence is very much mainstream.
In my branch, I tend to use the phrases “Heavenly Parents” and “Deity.” I haven’t noticed any raised eyebrows. Yet. And when I taught a RS lesson a while back, I was quite explicit in talking about Heavenly Mother; thinking about her, wanting to know her, and pondering how I will be like her someday. And of course, we sang, “O My Father,” which is the only hymn (that I am aware of) that mentions Heavenly Mother.
I make a point of mentioning Heavenly Mother every single time I bear my testimony. I don’t notice any raised eyebrows or anything. The last time I did it, I mentioned Her several times. During Relief Society, the Bishop called me into his office, and I was sure he was going to read me the riot act about the impropriety of mentioning Heavenly Mother. My heart was pounding. But all he did was extend me yet another calling. So I guess it’s completely kosher in my ward.
I will say that I always mention Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father in the same breath (i.e. where a “normal” testimony would say “Heavenly Father,” I say “Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father” or “Heavenly Parents.”). I can imagine that if I were to start talking about Her by Herself (as we do all the time with Heavenly Father), I might get some negative reactions.
I recommend the BYU studies article titled “A Mother There” from last year’s journal (Spring 2011). BYU Studies is a mainstream, peer-reviewed publication that has built an awesome archive of references to Heavenly Mother made by prophets and apostles starting from 1830 to the present day.The article collects Latter-day Saint Church leaders’ teachings about Heavenly Mother, affirming her role as a creator and divine parent of humankind. It dispels the notion that there must be a ‘sacred silence’ surrounding the topic of Heavenly Mother, and points out that all comments suggesting there must that silence are not members of the 12 or the first presidency…
Here’s a great review/synopsis from Valerie Hudson on the BYU Studies article:
http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleCasslerPaulsenPulido.html
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