Even though she’s no longer a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the founder of Ordain Women says she’ll continue in the leadership of the movement to gain the priesthood throughout the church.
Kate Kelly was notified on Monday that she had been excommunicated by a church disciplinary council held at her former home ward in Vienna, Virginia. She says the news has been personally difficult even with support from her husband and family and from hundreds of people who turned out for a vigil on Sunday.
Kelly says the movement is bigger than just one person.
“Ordain Women will continue,” Kelly told KUER. “It’s going to be stronger than it ever was. A lot of people are taking this as a rallying cry. And I think they’ve underestimated Mormon women at every turn.”
The letter sent by her bishop says Kelly will no longer be allowed to speak in church meetings, and it urges her to abandon her activism and stop recruiting others to share her beliefs if she ever wants to be readmitted to the church.
Kelly and her husband, Neil Ransom, are planning to move to Kenya in a few months to continue his graduate studies.