Mormon women shut out of priesthood meeting

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- More than 100 Mormon men and women called on the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to allow women to become ordained.

On Saturday afternoon, about130 women and dozens of men of the Ordain Women movement stood outside of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City after being denied entrance to the all-male priesthood session in the nearby Conference Center, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

LDS Church spokeswoman Ruth Todd met with the women and said that the women's session, the Relief Society meeting, was held last week and that Saturday night's session was for men only.

Later, Todd told reporters that not many Mormon women share the views of other women who wish to be ordained.

"Most church members would see such efforts as divisive," Todd said. "Even so, these are our sisters and we want them among us, and hope they will find the peace and joy we all seek in the Gospel."

Meanwhile, apostle D. Todd Christofferson said earlier Saturday at General Conference that feminists Mormons who wish to become ordained are minimizing importance of homemaking.

"Whatever else a woman may accomplish," Christofferson said, "her moral influence is no more optimally employed than [in the home]."