Of Woven Faith

All adult women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are members of Relief Society.  It is one of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in the world with membership topping 7 million.  Each spring this worldwide sisterhood commemorates the founding of the Relief Society back in 1842.  

Twenty years ago my sweet friend CaRene Heap approached me and my husband about writing a song to be performed at a local event celebrating the anniversary of the Relief Society. While I was coming up with the music, Chuck was busy digging into the book Women of Covenant seeking inspiration for the lyrics.  I never feel like my music does his lyrics justice, and this song is no exception.  The song begins . . . 

     I began with Adam.

     I helped Enoch build a city.

     I set Moses gently in the river.

     I helped Lehi cross the sea.

     I saw first the risen Savior.

     I patched quilts to warm the saints.

     I am an heiress to a tapestry of woven faith

     I must now add my thread

     to the pattern of the past . . .

What makes membership especially significant for me is that many of my third and fourth great grandmothers were among some of the first members of the Relief Society: Sarah and Caroline Cutler, Nancy Wight, Abigail Williams, Weighty Lewis, Harriet and Fairzina Lish, Olive and Lucinda Bingham, and Patty Gates.  This heritage of service, of putting others first, is passed heart to heart.

Speaking of these first members, Henry B. Eyring stated, “They came from a great diversity of circumstances.  All faced the universal trials and heartaches of life.  Their determination born of faith to serve the Lord and others seemed to take them not around the storms of life but directly into them.  Some were young and some old.  They were from many lands and peoples, as you are today.  But they were of one heart, one mind, and with one intention.”  It is up to us to preserve and pass on this sacred legacy to future generations.

Many thanks to my great friends Leeann Scott and JoEllyn West, who incidentally personify this Christ-like spirit.  We performed the song way back in 1999 and this month we came together to perform it again.  Thanks so much you two!!!!!

Click HERE to download free sheet music