Mormons lower ages for overseas missions
Down to 19 for women and 18 years for men
• Mikaela Merrill was in the middle of her fall semester at Brigham Young University when she abruptly altered her college plans and signed up for a Mormon mission.
Now, she’s studying around the clock to learn the proper intonation of Mandarin and is just weeks away from fulfilling her dream of serving as an overseas missionary.
Merrill is among thousands who have taken advantage of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ decision to lower the minimum age for missionaries: from 21 to 19 for women; and from 19 to 18 for men. She is part of the first wave of younger missionaries at the Missionary Training Center in Provo.
For many Mormons, these missions are considered rites of passage, broadening their perspective on the world, strengthening their faith and helping prepare some of them for future leadership roles within the church. The number of missionaries around the world is expected to rise to 90,000 by end of 2013, up from 58,600.
Young Mormon men are expected, but not required to serve missions. Historically, women have faced far less pressure to serve. Men serve two years while women go for 18 months.
Church leaders and outside scholars believe it could be a landmark moment that leads to many more women serving missions. Rather than having to leave at age 21 — when many women are about to start careers or perhaps are contemplating marriage and starting families — Mormon women can now serve missions shortly after high school.
Applications for new missions are up two-fold since the surprise Oct. 6 announcement, and the reaction from women has been overwhelming. About half of all new applications to go on missions have been from women, the church says; previously, only 15 per cent of missionaries were women.
“It’s a great blessing for a woman to be able to go a little earlier,” said Merrill, a 19-year-old from Castle Rock, Colorado, who completed her application within two weeks of the church’s announcement. “It gives us a lot more options to go with schooling and stuff. I’m really grateful for the change.”
Long term, the change is expected to lead to increased membership for a church that reported having 14.4 million members worldwide as of January 2012. Missionaries convert about five people per mission, said Matt Martinich, a church growth researcher.
Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, said the lower age limit is part of a movement in the church to enhance the importance and visibility of women.
“There is a sincere effort by this group of new and emerging male church leaders, from apostles on down, to do everything possible and feasible to do, to show how much they value the contributions of women in the church, short of actually giving them the priesthood,” Mauss said. He thinks the church will eventually lower the minimum age for women to 18.
Johanna Adams, a 22-year-old from Fruit Heights, Utah, headed on a mission to Taiwan, said she’s expecting many more women to serve missions, thanks to the flexibility.
“When you are 21, you are almost kind of set in your path,” she said. “This gives you an option a little bit sooner.”