The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, United States, and has more than 7 million members in over 188 countries and territories. The Relief Society is often referred to by the church and others as "one of the oldest and largest women's organizations in the world."Sally H. Barlow and Allen E. Bergin, "Religion and Mental Health from a Mormon Perspective", in Harold George Koenig (ed.) Handbook of Religion and Mental Health (San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1998) pp. 225–44 at 233."Churches, others help BelAir Family Center" , The Times-Herald [Newnan, Georgia], 2010-01-06."4 Functions of the Relief Society" , ComeUntoChrist.org.Brooke Adams, "LDS women urged to strengthen connections, avoid judging", Salt Lake Tribune, 2010-09-25.Harvey Shepherd, "Mormon growth sparks a building boom in Quebec", Montreal Gazette, 2006-11-25, p. K10.
Mission The motto of the Relief Society, taken from 1 Corinthians 13:8, is "Charity never faileth." The purpose of Relief Society reads, “Relief Society helps prepare women for the blessings of eternal life as they increase faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement; strengthen individuals, families, and homes through ordinances and covenants; and work in unity to help those in need.”
History
Nauvoo Period In the spring of 1842 Sarah Granger Kimball and her seamstress, Margaret A. Cook, discussed combining their efforts to sew clothing for workers constructing the Latter Day Saints' Nauvoo Temple. They determined to invite their neighbors to assist by creating a Ladies' Society. Kimball asked Eliza R. Snow to write a constitution and by-laws for the organization for submission to President of the Church Joseph Smith for review. After reviewing the documents, Smith called them "the best he had ever seen" but said, "this is not what you want. Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for them than a written constitution. ... I will organize the women. .. after a pattern of the priesthood."Sarah Granger Kimball, "Auto-Biography," Woman's Exponent vol. 12, no. 7 (September 1, 1883): 51.Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Twenty Latter Day Saint women gathered on Thursday, March 17, 1842, in the second-story meeting room over Smith's Red Brick Store in Nauvoo to discuss the formation of a Ladies' Society with Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards. Joseph Smith proposed the society elect a presiding officer and allow that officer to choose two counselors to aid her. Emma Smith was elected as president and then chose her two counselors, Sarah M. Cleveland and Elizabeth Ann Whitney. The three members of the Presidency were then ordained and blessed by Taylor. At the meeting Joseph Smith stated "the object of the Society—that the Society of Sisters might provoke the brethren to good works in looking to the wants of the poor—searching after objects of charity, and in administering to their wants—to assist; by correcting the morals and strengthening the virtues of the female community, and save the Elders the trouble of rebuking; that they may give their time to other duties, &c., in their public teaching."Minutes of the Nauvoo Relief Society, 17 March 1842, p. 6, Church History Library; Relief Society, Charity Never Faileth: History of the Relief Society, 1842–1966 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1967), 18.
After discussion, it was unanimously agreed that the fledgling organization be named "The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo". The new organization was popular and grew so rapidly that finding a meeting place for such a large group proved difficult. Under Emma Smith's direction, the Society was "divided for the purpose of meeting" according to each of the city's four municipal wards.Minutes of the Nauvoo Relief Society, 7 July 1843, p. 92, Church History Library. Visiting committees were appointed to determine needs in each ward. By March 1844, membership totaled 1331 women.Maurine Carr Ward, "'This Institution is a Good One': The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842 to 16 March 1844," Mormon Historical Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 86–203. The last recorded meeting of the Relief Society in Nauvoo was held on March 16, 1844.Jill Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1992) p. 62; Barbara W. Winder, "Relief Society in Nauvoo," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, Robert J. Matthews, and Charles D. Tate Jr., et al. (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1992) pp. 1207–1208; Jill Mulvay Derr, "Relief Society," in Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, ed. Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2000) pp. 992–997. Smith had often used the Relief Society as a pulpit to express her opposition to plural marriage. However, several of the society's members and leaders were themselves secretly in plural marriages, including to Smith's own husband, who himself counseled the society against exposing iniquity. These inner conflicts led Joseph Smith to suspend all meetings of the organization. After the death of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Brigham Young assumed leadership of the majority of Latter Day Saints. Desiring to continue plural marriage, Young disbanded the Relief Society before leaving Nauvoo for the Salt Lake Valley.
Moving west
When Relief Society secretary Eliza R. Snow joined the Latter Day Saints in their exodus west in 1846, she carried the Relief Society Book of Records with her. Although they no longer met in an official capacity, women continued to assemble informally; the care and nurture of the needy continued without a formal Relief Society organization.Richard L. Jensen, "Forgotten Relief Societies, 1844–67," Dialogue, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1983):105–125; Jill Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of the Relief Society (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1992), 68.
As Saints established homes in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding settlements, formal meetings for women gradually emerged. A Female Council of Health was established in 1851.Jensen, "Forgotten Relief Societies," 107. In early 1854, in response to Brigham Young's call to Saints to assist neighboring Native Americans, women from several Salt Lake City wards decided to organize an "Indian Relief Society" with the purpose of "making clothing for Indian women and children.""Record of the Female Relief Society Organized the 9th of Feby in the City of Great Salt Lake 1854," Louisa R. Taylor Papers, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Jensen, "Forgotten Relief Societies," 109.Jensen, "Forgotten Relief Societies," 109. In June 1854, Brigham Young encouraged women to form societies in their individual wards. Members of the first Indian Relief Society disbanded to help establish organizations in their own wards, many of them becoming leaders. Records are limited but show that by 1858 over two dozen organizations had formed in some twelve Salt Lake City wards and in other outlying settlements such as Ogden, Provo, Spanish Fork, and Manti, Utah.
Each Relief Society operated independently within its ward in cooperation with the local bishop. Ward societies were not interconnected by central women's leadership, though many of them engaged in similar activities such as sewing clothing for Indians, caring for the poor, especially emigrants, and weaving carpets for local meetinghouses.Jensen, "Forgotten Relief Societies," 109–118. Interrupted by the 1858 Utah War, no more than three or four of these independent ward organizations survived the temporary move of much of the Latter-day Saint population south of Salt Lake County.William G. Hartley, "Common People: Church Activity During the Brigham Young Era," in Nearly Everything Imaginable: The Everyday Life of Utah's Mormon Pioneers, ed. Ronald W. Walker and Doris R. Dant (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1999), 262.
Reorganization and expansion
In December 1867 church president Brigham Young publicly called for the reorganization of Relief Society in every ward. Eliza R. Snow was assigned to assist local bishops in organizing permanent branches of the Relief Society. Using the minutes recorded in the early Nauvoo meetings as a Constitution, Snow created a standard model for all local wards that united women in purpose and provided a permanent name and structure to their organization. She and nine other sisters began visiting wards and settlements in 1868, and at the end of the year, organizations existed in all twenty Salt Lake City congregations and in congregations in nearly every county in Utah. Women helped the bishop of the ward assist the poor by collecting and disbursing funds and commodities. They nursed the sick, cleaned homes, sewed carpet rags for local meeting houses, planted and tended gardens, promoted home industry, and shared doctrinal instruction and testimony.
Snow provided central leadership both before and after her call as General President in 1880. She emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, and built granaries. In 1872, Snow provided assistance and advice to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication, the Woman's Exponent, which was loosely affiliated with the Relief Society. Emmeline B. Wells succeeded Greene and continued as editor until its final issue in 1914.
Snow, Mary Isabella Horne, and others established the Ladies' Cooperative Retrenchment Association from which the Young Ladies' Department of the Ladies' Cooperative Retrenchment was formed (later called the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association and now the Young Women). Snow also worked with Aurelia Spencer Rogers to establish the first ward Primary Association in 1878. By 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 local wards and branches."The Women of Utah Represented at the International Council of Women at Washington, D.C.," Woman's Exponent 16 (April 1, 1888): 164–165. In 1891, the Relief Society became a charter member of the National Council of Women of the United States and it was called the National Women's Relief Society.
Early Relief Society meetings were generally held semi-monthly. One meeting per month was devoted to sewing and caring for the needs of the poor. At meetings members might receive instruction, discuss elevating and educational topics, and bear testimony. The women were also encouraged to explore and develop cultural opportunities for their community.
The 20th century The Relief Society Magazine became the official publication of the Relief Society from 1915 to 1970. By 1942, membership in the organization was approximately 115,000 women, paragraph 3 growing to 300,000 members in 1966.The Relief Society General Board Association, History of Relief Society 1842–1966, 1966 In June 1945, the General Board changed the organization's official name to "Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".