Faith, Service and Sisterhood: The Relief Society’s Legacy in Canada

The Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is celebrating its 183rd birthday. The event is being commemorated with a devotional broadcast by the Relief Society General Presidency and Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Sunday, March 16, 2025. Relief Society members living in Canada will gather in their local congregations to watch the global broadcast and share their testimonies of Jesus Christ.

The Relief Society was organized under the direction of Joseph Smith on March 17, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois, just 12 years after the Church’s organization. Speaking on that occasion, Emma Smith, the first president of the Relief Society, declared: “We are going to do something extraordinary— … we expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls” (“‘Something Extraordinary’: The Beginnings of the Relief Society”).

Her words proved prophetic. The Relief Society is now one of the world’s largest and oldest women’s organizations, with more than seven million members in 188 countries.

Early Relief Societies in Latter-day Saint Settlements in Alberta

Relief Societies were organized in Canada as soon as the first Latter-day Saint settlers arrived in Alberta in the late 19th century. In 1887, Zina Card and her husband, Charles Ora Card, founded Cardston, Canada’s first Latter-day Saint settlement. Zina was the daughter of Zina D.H. Young, the Relief Society General President from 1888 to 1901. Young, also a midwife, visited her daughter in Cardston in 1888 and delivered her baby, Zina Card’s first daughter. Young also led Relief Society meetings and shared gospel messages with the women of Cardston during her visit (“Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol. 2: No Unhallowed Hand: 1846–1893” [2020], 550). Zina Card, in turn, led Relief Society efforts in the Cardston area, sponsoring plays, lectures, recitations and musical performances as well as promoting painting and needlework (Roy and Carma Prete, eds., “Canadian Mormons” [2017], 156).

Following the Example of Jesus Christ by Ministering to Others

Relief Society has always sought to provide both practical and spiritual service. In October 1918, Lucy Peterson was the president of a small Relief Society in the community of Barnwell, Alberta. According to Barnwell history, “a familiar sight was ‘Aunt Lucy,’ as she was affectionately called, travelling about the district in a democrat in summer and a watersled pulled by one horse in winter. Faithfully, she made the visits she felt were necessary in her position as president. During the flue [sic] epidemic of 1918–19, many visits were made by the [Relief Society] sisters, food furnished, and aid and comfort given when several died” (“Barnwell History” [1952], 155–56).

To this day, Relief Society sisters visit one another, providing friendship, spiritual support and help with practical needs. ​​​​In April 2018, Sister Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society General President from 2017 to 2022, explained that Jesus Christ set the example for service that Relief Society women give. “What did the Savior do?” she asked. “He … smiled at, talked with, walked with, listened to, made time for, encouraged, taught, fed and forgave. He served family and friends, neighbors and strangers alike, and He invited acquaintances and loved ones to enjoy the rich blessings of His gospel. Those ‘simple’ acts of service and love provide a template for our ministering today​​​​” (“Ministering as the Savior Does,” April 2018 general conference).

Canadian ‘Singing Mothers’ Perform in Salt Lake City for Canadian Centennial<

In the 1960s, Relief Societies across Canada formed choirs known as “Singing Mothers.” In 1967, for the centennial of Canadian Confederation, 350 mothers from Alberta and British Columbia provided the music for two sessions of the general conference of the Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. A breathtaking moment occurred when President Hugh B. Brown and President N. Eldon Tanner, both of the Church’s First Presidency and both from Canada, stood and faced the choir as it sang a beautiful arrangement of “O Canada” (“Canadian Mormons,” 189, 267, 292).

A Circle of Sisters

Ruth Yates remembers the influence Relief Society had on her as a young girl in Timmins, Ontario. At a time when there wasn’t even a Church building to meet in, her mother regularly gathered a small group of Relief Society women together for quilting bees. Yates hid under the quilts and listened as the women talked and laughed. She later said, “I know those women were nourished not only by the lunch that was always joyfully served but by the comfort and encouragement that they shared with one another. That has become a hallmark of Relief Society for me.”

Humanitarian Work

Throughout its history, Canadian Relief Societies have undertaken hundreds of humanitarian projects, such as collecting food, assembling hygiene kits, creating blankets and preparing layette kits for new mothers.

A few recent examples include the Relief Society women of Brampton, Mississauga, Kitchener and Hamilton, Ontario, who in 2006 undertook a project for the children of women incarcerated at the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ontario. The Relief Society women gathered donations of children’s books, then visited the women’s prison and recorded the inmates reading the books. The recordings and the books were sent to the inmates’ children and grandchildren.

Other Relief Society groups in Ottawa and Montreal made period packs in partnership with Days for Girls, which provides sustainable, fabric menstruation products to girls and women in 120 countries across six continents.

In the fall of 2024, Relief Society members in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, completed a project to help children across the Maritimes. The Relief Society worked with a regional women’s and children’s hospital to make 800 feeding-tube patches that could be placed between the skin and feeding tubes to prevent skin irritation.

Relief Society Expressions of Charity Over Time

The Relief Society organization’s motto — “Charity Never Faileth” — has manifested itself in a wide variety of initiatives over time, from caring for people experiencing poverty to fundraising for Church buildings, from founding hospitals and supporting the education of women in medical fields to advocating for women’s suffrage, from stockpiling wheat for times of emergency to supporting Red Cross efforts during world wars. Relief Society has helped its members develop stronger homes and families while encouraging them to serve in and strengthen their communities. The organization’s work has evolved, but it has always included serving within the community and world, visiting and ministering to each other, building faith in Jesus Christ and strengthening families. (For more information, see “Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society.”)

Celebrations Renew Focus on Relief Society Motto

The celebrations of the 183rd birthday of Relief Society will give Relief Society women in Canada and around the world the chance to focus on their motto, reflect on their history and recommit to a life of charity. In October 2010, President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) expressed his wish for the future of the Relief Society: “‘Charity never faileth.’ May this long-enduring Relief Society motto, this timeless truth, guide you in everything you do. May it permeate your very souls and find expression in all your thoughts and actions” (“Charity Never Faileth,” October 2010 general conference).

Women Invited to Participate in Worldwide Devotional Commemorating Founding of Relief Society

Read the article in French