The Church announced new names for the Young Women classes yesterday. They are “Builders of Faith,” “Messengers of Hope,” and “Gatherers of Light” for (turning) 12-13, 14-15, and 16-17 classes, respectively. So no more calling the YW class just by their ages, which felt kind of cold to me. But also no going back to Beehives, Mia Maids, and Laurels. I hope you’ve already seen the re-designed movie poster for Once I Was a Builder of Faith.
On the class half empty side, I do have some complaints:
- These names are a mouthful, just like saying the full name of the Church is. The previous class names, for all the drawbacks they might have had, were at least each only two syllables. I’m guessing the new names, to the degree they’re actually used, will typically be shortened to just their first word.
- In spite of the little explanatory sentence in the press release for each class name, there’s nothing in any of the names particularly associated with the age the girls are. On the boys’ side, we have actual scripture about what deacons, teachers, and priests are supposed to do. Although to be fair, we largely ignore it because it was written at a time when holders of these offices were expected to be adult men. And it’s a good thing, too. Who wants a 14-15-year-old boy “watch[ing] over the church always“?
- The names are nice in a kind of vague way. They seem to be about positive characteristics the girls could cultivate. But they’re also far from anything concrete.
- Speaking of complaints, we should just ordain teen girls along with women.
- And if we’re not going to ordain them, we could at least have them prepare and pass the sacrament, as the only scriptural comment on needing priesthood seems to be about blessing the sacrament. Sam Brunson at BCC has blogged several times about this point.
On the class half full side, I think I only need to list some other possible class names that I’m sure were kicked around in some committee somewhere before being ultimately rejected:
- Guardians of Virtue
- Garnishers of Virtue
- Unceasing Garnishers of Virtue
- Guardians of Chastity
- Immorality Preventers
- Those Who Do Not Become Pornography
- Those Whose Eyes Are Not Wanton and Their Necks Not Stretched Stretched Forth
- The Modestly Covered
- Purveyors of Purity
- Eschewers of Fame and Fortune
- Auxiliaries in Training
- Supporters of the Priesthood
- Hidden from the World
- Mothers-to-Be
- Mothers
What do you think of the new names? Are they more good or more bad? And of course I’d love to hear alternative class names that may have been rejected!
These new class names are terrible. I could drop them into my D&D game as new factions without my players batting an eye. And they’re 60% of the way to fantasy book titles!
Coming soon to a Deseret Book near you: A Builder of Faith and Charity, A Messenger of Hope and Faith, A Gatherer of Light and Joy, a YA fantasy trilogy with no romance until the third book and absolutely no smut. And don’t miss the spinoff sequels, A House of the Lord and Promises, in which our heroine gets married in a building that is totally not a thinly-fictionalized version of the Salt Lake Temple, and A Society of Relief and Charity, in which our heroine has her first child and prepares to further serve her community by hosting a craft night or something (there’s no smut in the sequels, either, even though those are for adults, because For the Strength of Youth rules apply equally to adults, never mind that she can’t keep the FtSoY rules about sex and also get pregnant).
Humor aside – I’m very grateful that I’m not a teenage girl right now. I would have hated being a builder of anything at 11-13ish years old, since that was when virtually every adult in my life was pushing me to pursue a future in engineering, which happened to be a subject I had no interest in. And messenger feels too similar to missionary for my taste, as someone who knew from approximately the age of four that a mission was not for me. I miss the symbolism of beehives and laurels. Pomegranates and olives are both mentioned in the scriptures, but the church probably doesn’t want to use those because of their seeds/fruit, considering teenage girls aren’t supposed to use their seeds/produce fruit (until they get married in a few years, at which point that’s the entire purpose of their existence). We can always go with rubies thanks to Proverbs 31?
In related news, adult women can now be called as “Presiders of the Sunday School”.
My first thought was that the names seem like what the priestesses of a fertility cult in a fantasy novel would be called.
My second thought was at least the classes have a name. It seemed sad to take away the previous names.
My third thought was if it’s not Deacon, Teacher, Priest (with ordination) I don’t think I’ll be happy with any name change.
My kids had an immediate dislike for the new names. My daughter (a counselor in the Gatherers of Light presidency) went out last night to drop off some birthday treats or something and reported back that all of the girls and all of the youth leaders dislike the new names.
My son thinks that we need to develop some symbols, and maybe a flag, to tie together the names and develop and identity for the classes. He’s working on an idea to use a hammer for the Builders, a star for the Messengers (like the Christmas star as a symbol of hope) and a sickle for the Gatherers (I don’t know how to gather light, but you can gather grain). I suspect his plan is to put these three together on a red background. ?
These new names are about as useful as a Soviet-era farm tractor rusting in a field. The names evoke about as much excitement as said tractor.
Since the origin of these names is a former podcaster, one must wonder whether the names are inspired by celebrity culture. Indeed, they appear to be an attempt to increase popularity, without increasing substance.
The names will quickly fall into disuse. Much like the watered down youth programs themselves that are continuing to lose participants.
These comments are hilarious. Thank you all for making me laugh today.
Here’s my (much less clever) contribution…
Bakers of cakes, caretakers of kids, makers of (instagram) content
My 17-year-old daughter’s response: “no thanks. I think I’ll be a show-er of shoulders.”
Dave W, that 2nd paragraph had me dying with laughter. An absolute gem.
I vote LOL
Sigh.
I guess: in the context of the church doing genuinely baffling and questionable things (e.g.we are suing John Dehlin for copyright infringement now? Good grief! SEC fines for genuinely unethical business practices, etc), it makes me a little sad that the bloggernacle and commentariat don’t know how to just take the win once in a while.
Builders, Messengers, Gatherers. Kind of great names actually. And frankly astonishing, and pleasantly surprising, that a big bureaucratic org can actually hit a homer like this once in a while. To be honest, I think the names are so cool that one of the second order (slightly subversive!) effects of them is that they highlight how weird and archaic the priesthood class names are. (14 year old “teachers”? 18 year old “elders”?) in other words, this is as good as it gets people! This is what knocking and out of the park looks like, when you aren’t tied to 19th century scriptural class names, and you get to start with a blank sheet of paper. Frankly I think Eliza Snow and Chieko Okazaki would be proud.
Removing the old archaic miamaids monikers a few years ago seemed like a good move….. yet, “14-15 year old class” names as placeholders seemed woefully second class and a slap in the face. Roger. I was 100% with the nacle on that being problematic. Kinda like the new YW theme mentioning heavenly parents (yay!) while the new YM theme only mentions father (facepalm).
But now it actually seems the church has LISTENED to the objection regarding YW class names, and done something genuinely, surprisingly decent here.
Complaining about these names? Seems to me that says more about the complainers than the church. And the real problem, if you ask me, is that it kind of removes the credibility of bloggers and commenters to be able to be seen as honest brokers and acting in good faith. If all the bloggernacle can never do is reliably complain about whatever the church does — even when it does something kinda great now and then — then I guess the whole project starts to seem a little less interesting and less useful.
Trust me, I get weary of reading about (and experiencing) genuinely “suss” things associated with the church. It’s exhausting.
Which is why it’s so delightful once in a while when they do something that kicks butt. Like these new class names. Or the new hymns. (yeah, I know there are some stinkers in there, but there are some that are so genuinely, objectively fantastic. fight me lol.)
Take the dub! Seriously.
The highest quality the old class names had was many decades association with the young women of the church. We would hear “laurel” or “beehive” or “MIAmaid,” and we would think of the girls we know and have known, individuals and groups. (In my case, I never stopped associating in my mind the old names with current young women of the church of various ages.) In a few years the new class names will have begun acquiring that luster through association with good people doing good things too.