LDS Church To Distribute New Relief Society Manual, "Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society"

Update August 29th: The Exponent has published a review of "Daughters In My Kingdom" from a mildly feminist perspective; A Well-Behaved Mormon Woman has published a more faith-promoting review.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced its intention to distribute a new Relief Society manual. Entitled "Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society", the 208-page book is organized by themes such as family, sisterhood and charity. Each chapter includes stories of Latter-day Saint women throughout history and around the world today. It is intended to be an additional resource for personal study, teaching at home, and in Relief Society and other church settings. The manual won't be posted online until paper copies are distributed worldwide.

Sister Julie B. Beck, President of the Relief Society, discusses the manual in the video embedded below. She notes that the history portion is intended to address some of the insecurities and myths many LDS women have felt about themselves and their religion. Those insecurities are frequently expressed and discussed on the two leading feminist-oriented Mormon blogs, Exponent and Feminist Mormon Housewives.



Media stories were also published by the Deseret News and KSL Channel 5, whose video is embedded below:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

One of the major contributors to the book is Susan W. Tanner, the former Young Women general president for the LDS Church who is now serving a mission in Brazil with her husband. Sister Tanner noted that "This work needs to get the women of the world and the women of the church from where they are to where they need to be."

Sister Beck and her two counselors are expected to discuss the book in more detail at the General Relief Society Meeting to be held in Salt Lake City on September 24th, a week before the 181st Semiannual General Conference to be held there on October 1-2.

Distribution Schedule: Each woman in the Church will receive a personal copy.

-- Copies will be sent to English-speaking units of the church by September 30th.
-- Spanish and Portuguese copies distributed by November 30th.
-- Twenty other languages by January 15th, 2012.

LDS Media Talk notes that after the book is distributed, it will also be made available online on LDS.org. This is now the case; it's available HERE (14 MB PDF file, takes a few minutes to load)