Three months after a policy change opened the door for them to lead Latter-day Saint Sunday schools, a number of women have walked through it.

And they are excited and embracing the challenge.

“We have unique spiritual gifts as women,” said Christine Giles, who was called as Sunday school president in her St. George congregation mere weeks after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the shift. “I think the Lord is really beckoning and pleading with women to center gospel instruction on him.”

The lay leaders of her ward centered on her from the start as the right woman for this new opportunity.

“We could just see God’s hand directing us to Christine,” Bishop Colby Callahan said. “Her name came to us right away, and she’s been amazing so far. She’s an educator, so she knows how to teach, which has been great for a Sunday school president. ... She just jumped right in. So it’s been a blessing for our ward.”

Giles, deputy director of Vista School, a public charter school in nearby Ivins, said she aims to refocus Sunday school in her ward to reduce lecture time while promoting learner participation and enhancing inclusion.

“I’m humbled by this opportunity,” she said. “I have felt a tender feeling of, ‘Christine, God actually you needs you in this position because you are going to be a builder of faith ... to make sure that there’s space and room for everyone in Sunday school.’”

Rylee Schild said she, too, is counting on divine guidance as Sunday school president in her young single adult congregation in Provo.

“[My bishop] was like, ‘we’re not just calling you because you’re a female,’” she said. “[He said they] thought ‘maybe we should go a different route, but the Lord kind of corrected us and we realized, no, you are the person that needs to be in this calling right now.’ They did so because it was inspired of God, not to check a box.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about us,”Schild said. “It’s all about him.”

New opportunity for thousands of women

For decades, serving in Sunday school presidencies was reserved exclusively for adult men holding the faith’s priesthood. Now, women, who are not eligible for ordination, have the chance to lead Sunday schools across more than 32,000 congregations around the world in the 17.8 million-member church.

“This important change gives bishoprics additional options as they prayerfully consider who should lead the effort of teaching and learning in their wards,” Sunday School General President Paul V. Johnson said at the time of the announcement. “There are many capable women and men who can help strengthen gospel instruction and foster spiritual growth.”

As Sunday school presidents, these newly called women not only train teachers and help shape gospel instruction, but they also act as de facto advisers in leading their congregations.

“At the first ward council meeting I attended,” Giles said, “I had a male member of that council come up to me and say, ‘I’m so glad you are here because you’re asking questions that no one else has asked.’”

Single-sex presidencies only

The church’s new policy did rule out mixed-gender presidencies. If a woman is called, her counselors and secretary must also be female members. If a man is appointed, his counselors and secretary must be male members.

“When working in a presidency, you grow close to those you serve with,” said Tami Larsen, the newly called Sunday school president of a West Jordan ward. “It avoids relationships becoming more than they should be.”

Besides, she added, “women bring different things to the table. They can read people differently. Also, women are more likely to speak up if they aren’t the only women in the group.”

For her part, Giles said she would be fine with women and men serving in presidencies.

“As someone whose professional life involves working closely with men — it would not worry me to have mixed genders serving together.”

The announcement also came with one notable carve-out: The change does not apply to stakes (regional collections of congregations) or at the general church level. Those positions will continue to be held by men.

‘I haven’t had any resistance’

While there have been reports of female Sunday school getting pushback from some members, that hasn’t been the case for the women interviewed in this story.

“I haven’t had any resistance,” Giles said. “I have had women of every age coming up and saying, ‘I’m so excited.’”

Larsen said she has had “a lot of both women and men who have come up and said that they felt the spirit testify to them when I was called. And I had a good confirmation afterward that the Lord was mindful of me personally. ... I did have a confirmation that this is right.”

For some, this institutional evolution is about more than Sunday school itself.

“Being a minority as a woman is something I really struggled with in church leadership,” said Alliyah Ho, a 24-year-old Latter-day Saint in Schild’s ward. “It didn’t make sense to me for women not to be able to fulfill this calling previously, and while it can feel like a small step to some ... this gives me confidence that our leaders are listening to [God].”

Theo Tillman, a male member of Schild’s ward, said the change will help women be seen and heard as spiritual leaders, giving the “Latter-day Saint female experience much, much more recognition.”

If they do bump into criticism, these Sunday school presidents expressed confidence that the change was divinely inspired.

“If we can drop our egos,” Schild said, “and realize women don’t bring something better than men and men don’t bring something better than women — it’s, ‘what can we bring together for Christ?’”