To begin the organization, some priorities were followed. First, a branch president and then an elders quorum president and a Relief Society president were called. It was understood that there could be no functioning branch without a quorum president and a Relief Society president.

As the Prophet Joseph Smith began establishing the Church in this dispensation, the Lord directed him to follow similar inspired patterns. When he set the course for the Relief Society, he told the sisters they were organized “under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood.” This gave the sisters official responsibilities in the restored Church and the authority to function in those responsibilities. This was a pattern similar to that given to a president of a quorum of elders, who was to counsel with his presidency.

Before we can understand why we are thus organized, it may be helpful to review the definition of a priesthood quorum and a Relief Society. Many people have the mistaken idea that a quorum or a Relief Society is merely a class or a place to sit during the third hour of church on Sunday. Perhaps some of this misunderstanding started to develop when the Church combined its major meetings into a three-hour block on Sunday. Before that time quorum and Relief Society meetings were not connected with sacrament meeting or Sunday School.

A priesthood quorum is a group of men with the same office of priesthood who are to perform a special labor. Membership in a quorum has been called “a steady, sustaining citizenship.” President Boyd K. Packer has said that quorums are “selected assemblies of brethren given authority that [the Lord’s] business might be transacted and His work proceed.” He also said that “in ancient days when a man was appointed to a select body, his commission, always written in Latin, outlined the responsibility of the organization, defined who should be members, and then invariably contained the words: quorum vos unum meaning, ‘of whom we will that you be one.’”

President Spencer W. Kimball taught that “the Relief Society is the Lord’s organization for women. It complements the priesthood training given to the brethren.” The word society has a meaning nearly identical to that of quorum. It connotes “an enduring and cooperating . . . group” distinguished by its common aims and beliefs. When Joseph Smith organized the sisters, he told them that “there should be a select society, separate from all the evils of the world, choice, virtuous, and holy.” President Joseph F. Smith taught that Relief Society has its own unique identity and that it was “divinely made, divinely authorized, divinely instituted, divinely ordained of God to minister for the salvation of the souls of women and men.”

The purposes of Relief Society are to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and provide relief for those who are in need. The quorum is to serve others, build unity and brotherhood, instruct quorum members in the doctrines and principles of the gospel, and watch over the Church.

Being part of a Relief Society or quorum is a designation for a way of life. We are to serve in the association of a Melchizedek Priesthood quorum or a Relief Society for a lifetime. From the quorum or Relief Society, we are called to serve in other Church assignments and organizations, such as missionary work, temple service, Sunday School, seminary or institute, Young Men, Primary, Young Women, and so forth. No matter where we serve, we always retain our “citizenship” in and our responsibility to the quorum or Relief Society. President Packer has taught that all service in the Church strengthens the higher priesthood and Relief Society and is a demonstration of our devotion to Relief Society and quorum membership.