Happy 167th Birthday, Relief Society!
Happy Birthday, Relief Society! The Relief Society will celebrate its 167th birthday on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. From the 20 women who attended that first meeting in the upper room of Joseph Smith’s Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Relief Society has grown to a worldwide organization of over 5 million sisters. Your Relief Society unit will be hosting a Relief Society birthday celebration, perhaps featuring the history of Relief Society in your area, or inviting husbands or friends to join for a tasty dinner and musical program, or asking each to bring a dish or memento representing a country of their ancestry. Whatever the details of your birthday party, enjoy celebrating and remembering the blessings of Relief Society in your life.
Sarah M. Kimball, who originated the sewing circle in Nauvoo that eventually became the circle of Relief Society sisters, served as general secretary in 1881. She prepared a jubilee box of photographs, documents, and memorabilia to be opened fifty years later. In 1930, not only a jubilee year but also the centennial of the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Louise Y. Robison, then general president, opened the box.
Sarah wrote to her successor:
Hon. Secretary: This is dedicated to you with the fond hope and firm belief that you are enjoying many advantages and blessings that were not enjoyed by your predecessors.
May God abundantly bless you and your labors.
(Signed) Sarah M. Kimball
Sec. Relief Society
Salt Lake City
April 1st, 1881
Now in the twenty-first century, we Relief Society sisters around the world are indeed “enjoying many advantages and blessings” that were not enjoyed by [our] predecessors in 1930, 1881, or 1842. We have received a rich heritage of sisterhood from thousands of Relief Society sisters who, often under difficult conditions, have served each other and the Lord faithfully, building the organization of Relief Society as we now know it. To these pioneering sisters and, particularly to the elect ladies, the former Relief Society presidents, who shaped and led the Relief Society, we owe an immense debt of gratitude.