And it sounded totally…normal.

I suppose there are places or people who would not have allowed this to happen, but no one around seemed to sweat it.  A deaf woman was baptized into our ward and when she was confirmed yesterday in Sacrament Meeting, it was only natural that her good friend, the deaf Elders Quorum President, act as voice.  Only he doesn’t speak, so he signed.  When deaf people perform laying on of hands ordinances, they start out with their hands on the recipient’s head, along with the rest of the circle, then they take a step back to allow room for signing and, in this case, allow the recipient to see the confirmation.

Although most of our ASL interpreters are women, we currently have two ASL Elder missionaries who speak serving in our ward, and they joined the circle.  But the microphone was held, and the ordinance interpreted into spoken English for the congregation, by the deaf Elders Quorum Presidents’ most natural interpreter: his wife.

I recall reading a story somewhere, right here in the blogernaccle, I’m sure, about a Stake Priesthood Meeting where the Stake President dismissed the female ASL interpreters from their midst, leaving the deaf attendants without access to the information presented at the meeting.  This is, of course, a flagrance of interpreting ethics, but when Church norms and interpreting norms go head to head, I guess that Stake President thought the Church should “win.”  I’m pretty OK going with interpretting.

What do you think–would this have ruffled any feathers in your ward?