This was a letter from the First Presidency, to every member of the Relief Society, back in September 1942. It was given in recognition of a new book, A Centenary of Relief Society, which was published by the General Board in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of that organization. It was also to be read to the sisters in Relief Society, as well as at ward Relief Society conferences. The Relief Society General Board states: “So clearly does it set out our duties, responsibilities, and place in the Church and its activities, that there can hereafter be no ground for any misapprehension by anyone on these matters.”

Please pay particular attention to the fourth paragraph.

Message of First Presidency to the Presidency, Officers, and Members of the Relief Society

Dear Sisters:

We offer our sincere congratulations to the Presidency, Officers, and Members of the Relief Society upon the issuing of their Relief Society Centenary. A hundred years of great achievement is fittingly witnessed through its fruitful pages.

We ask our Sisters of the Relief Society never to forget that they are a unique organization in the whole world, for they were organized under the inspiration of the Lord bestowed upon that great Prophet who was divinely called, by a visitation of the Father and Son, in person, to pen up this, the Last Dispensation, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. No other woman’s organization in all the earth has had such a birth.

This divinely inspired origin brings with it a corresponding responsibility, in consecration to service, and in the loftiest loyalty to the Priesthood of God and to one another. Members should permit neither hostile nor competitive interests of any kind to detract from the duties and obligations, the privileges and honors, the opportunities and achievements of membership in this great Society.

The prime, almost the exclusive allegiance of every member of this great group, runs in this field to their fellow members and to the organization. Members should permit no other affiliation either to interrupt or to interfere with the work of this Society. They should give to Relief Society service precedence over all social and other clubs and societies of similar kinds. We urge this because in the work of the Relief Society are intellectual, cultural, and spiritual values found in no other organization and sufficient for all general needs of its members.

We urge all the Sisters to take these things to heart, and to cooperate in continuing the Relief Society in its position of the greatest and most efficient woman’s organization in the World.

Faithfully your brethren,

Heber J. Grant

J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

David O. McKay

I’m so glad to see us talking about the history of Relief Society, our early sisters in this organization, and the important purposes of our organization. But sadly, Relief Society is not part of our souls, like it used to be. No longer do we put Relief Society above all else in our social lives. No longer do we look to Relief Society to fulfill our intellectual, cultural, or spiritual needs.

This is what made our early sisters great. They worked together, learned together, acted together, and produced phenomenal results in organizing medical fields of endeavor, food and clothing production, and countless selfless acts of personal care.

It has been prophesied that Relief Society is destined to be the greatest organization of women on the earth. But it won’t be until each one of us takes upon us the duties, responsibilities, and instructions of the Relief Society, given by our leaders, to act upon and govern our lives.

Take a look at your Relief Society. Does it fulfill your sisters’ needs toward such a destiny? What can you (as a leader or member) do to make it so?

Relief Society Magazine, Sept. 1942, Bold type added