Women’s Rites Podcast (Smith College)

RLDS Women’s Commissioner Marge Troeh, a leading advocate for women’s ordination in her church in the 1970s.

In Women’s Rites: A Podcast about Women’s Ordination, students from Smith College interview seven women ordained in the Community of Christ in the 1980s or early 1990s. The episodes address the various experiences of the first generation of women to hold priesthood in the Community of Christ. This podcast was written and produced as part of a class called “Mormonisms,” taught by Professor David Howlett. You can find the course’s syllabus here.


More from their website:

“Season 1 explores the story of women’s ordination in Community of Christ, a church with a quarter million members and formerly named the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This denomination began ordaining women in 1985. On the 35th anniversary of these first ordinations, students in Prof. David Howlett’s “Mormonisms” course take a look back on the journey towards women’s ordination in Community of Christ. To do so, students interviewed women ordained in the first decade after the 1985 policy change, women who went on to be leaders in Community of Christ.

On this website, you can listen to each episode from season 1, as well as read a background essay about women’s ordination in Community of Christ and access links to related projects and groups.

Subsequent seasons of “Women’s Rites” will look at women’s ordination within American Judaism, Buddhism, and mainline Protestant denominations. Look for these episodes in the spring of 2021.”