In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Relief Society, a special 90-minute satellite broadcast will be aired on five continents over the Church's satellite network on March 14.

The telecast, originating from Temple Square in Salt Lake City at 10 a.m. MST, will be beamed to meetinghouses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the West Indies, and the Dominican Republic. In addition, the telecast will also be transmitted to Relief Society sisters in Versailles, France; Frankfurt, Germany; Manchester, England; Johannesburg, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; and Manila, Philippines.The telecast will be the largest international women's meeting ever held, according to the Relief Society general presidency.

Live addresses and videotaped segments will be featured in the program, which will be simultaneously translated into 14 languages for later distribution to Relief Society sisters in various nations.

Speakers include President Thomas S. Monson, second counselor in the First Presidency; and the Relief Society general presidency, Elaine L. Jack, president, and her counselors Chieko N. Okazaki and Aileen H. Clyde.

The telecast will focus on the international diversity of the Relief Society.

Five Relief Society leaders from around the globe, selected by their local priesthood leaders to represent LDS women in their area, will speak about various aspects of the Relief Society's mission. (Each of the five Relief Society leaders was featured in monthly Church News articles.) They are:

Mukai Maphosa of Zimbabwe will speak about building a personal testimony; Maria de Aranda of Mexico City, blessing the individual woman; Lee Whan Kim of Seoul, Korea, developing and exercising charity; Leigh Stachowski of Sydney, Australia, strengthening the family; and Doris Sertel of Frankfurt, Germany, enjoying a unified sisterhood.

Pres. Jack will pay homage to the Relief Society's early roots during a segment that was videotaped at Nauvoo, Ill., where the Relief Society was organized on March 17, 1842.

Music for the meeting will be provided by the combined women's choirs of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Mormon Youth Chorus, with additional numbers by a choir of Polynesian women and by selected soloists.

The international satellite telecast is part of a series of activities by Relief Society members celebrating the organization's sesquicentennial anniversary. Local Relief Societies have been organizing community service projects, literacy programs and commemorative presentations to celebrate the event.

Several of the community service projects will be spotlighted during the satellite telecast, including a South African member's efforts to teach gardening skills to children who have never had a real home, as well as a massive quilt-making venture by a Denver, Colo., stake Relief Society for the area's homeless shelters.

In addition, during videotaped segments of the program, several Relief Society members will discuss their lives, spiritual growth and commitment to the gospel.

The telecast will also feature selected photographs from Something Extraordinary, the Relief Society sesquicentennial commemorative book that features Latter-day Saint women.

The international satellite telecast was inspired by a moment during the Relief Society's Jubilee Celebration 100 years ago, when, at noon, women throughout the Church gathered together in their local meetinghouses for a Jubilee prayer. The international telecast expands and augments that idea of worldwide sisterhood.