SOUTHERN UTAH, Utah (ABC4) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently announced that female members could serve as Sunday School Presidents, a role typically reserved for male members. We spoke to a Southern Utah woman who was called to the role just days after the announcement.

In March 2026, the Church updated its handbook to state that Sunday School Presidents can now be female, provided their counselors are also female. This is a departure from historical norms within the church, in which only male members were called to serve as Sunday School President.

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“This important change gives bishoprics additional options as they prayerfully consider who should lead the effort of teaching and learning in their wards,” said Sunday School General President Paul V. Johnson.

Johnson added, “At the time of our call as Sunday School leaders in 2024, the First Presidency gave us a charge—as they have done with previous presidencies—to improve teaching and learning in the Church. There are many capable women and men who can help strengthen gospel instruction and foster spiritual growth.”

Chris Heinrich, from Southern Utah, is a lifetime member of the Church, and she was called as a Sunday School President just days after this announcement was released. ABC4’s Cannon Secrist spoke with her about her reaction to the announcement and her calling.

“My reaction was probably what a lot of people’s were, which was: ‘Oh, yeah? Why wasn’t this done before?’” Heinrich said. Heinrich was called into a meeting with her ward’s bishop and was prepared to accept a calling, though she assumed it would be a role she had previously held.

“I was assuming it was going to be a redo of a calling I’d had before, and it wasn’t. And I was happy not because it was traditionally a male role or anything like that,” she said. “I was just excited because I hadn’t done it before.”

In her new position, Heinrich will be training teachers, guiding adult lessons in her ward, and working with other local church leaders. And, while this is a historic change in the Church, Heinrich says her focus is on serving where she is needed.

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“There’s not a superior gender in God’s church, and working together, we kind of make a perfect whole,” she said. “Each calling is a sacrifice. While I didn’t expect to do this calling. It was also not something I was always saying, ‘Oh, I wish I could be Sunday school president’, but this is to me, just another way to serve in the church.”

Heinrich may have been one of the first female Church members to receive a calling as Sunday School President, but this change will likely spread throughout the Church. However, she says she hopes the focus stays on working together.

She said, “As we work together in our callings. It really produces a very cohesive organization that works very well and helps us all to grow and get closer to Christ and learn more about him, which is the purpose of it.”

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