SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon church excommunicated the founder of a prominent women’s group Monday, a rare move that brings down the harshest punishment available on an adherent who created an organization and staged demonstrations in a push for women to join the faith’s priesthood.

The ousting of Kate Kelly marks one of the most significant excommunications in recent church history and sends a warning to others publicly challenging church practice and forming groups around their cause, scholars who study Mormonism say.

“It does more than excommunicate Kelly,” said Jan Shipps, a retired religion professor from Indiana who is a non-Mormon expert on the church. “It warns everybody.”

Shipps said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is implementing “boundary maintenance,” using Kelly as an example to show people how far they can go in questioning church practices.

Church officials had no immediate comment Monday.

Kelly’s former church leaders in Virginia notified her by email after holding a disciplinary hearing Sunday and weighing the matter overnight. They found her guilty of apostasy, defined as repeated and public advocacy of positions that oppose church teachings.

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Kelly’s group, Ordain Women, announced the decision Monday and released excerpts from the letter she received.

Her church leaders informed her that she can longer wear Mormon temple garments, hold positions in church or give talks during services, among other things. After one year, they will consider allowing her back, but only if she displays “true repentance” and shows she has “stopped teachings and actions that undermine the church, its leaders, and the doctrine of the priesthood,” the letter says.

Kelly wasn’t immediately available for comment but called the decision “exceptionally painful” and a “tragic day” for her family in an emailed statement.

Excommunication is not common in the Mormon faith, reserved usually for cases where members violate the religion’s moral code by having affairs, being charged criminally or committing sexual abuse, said Patrick Mason, chairman of the religion department and professor of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in California. Church members being kicked out for apostasy is quite rare, he said.


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