What's happening
This is the canonized announcement of the 1978 revelation by which President Spencer W. Kimball extended the priesthood — and with it the blessings of the temple — to all worthy male members of the Church, without regard for race or color. For much of the Church's history, men of black African descent had not been ordained to the priesthood; this revelation removed that restriction entirely. It is one of the most joyful and consequential declarations in the Doctrine and Covenants.
The official heading sets the context plainly: the Book of Mormon teaches that all are alike unto God (2 Nephi 26:33); throughout the Church's history people of every race had been baptized and lived as faithful members; during Joseph Smith's lifetime a few black male members had been ordained; but early in the Church's history its leaders stopped conferring the priesthood on black males of African descent, and Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice. Church leaders came to believe that only a revelation from God could change it, and prayerfully sought guidance. After President Kimball had pleaded long and earnestly in the temple, the answer came: on June 1, 1978, the revelation was received and affirmed to the other leaders in the Salt Lake Temple. On September 30, 1978, the announcement (read by President N. Eldon Tanner) and the First Presidency's letter of June 8, 1978, were presented to the Church in General Conference and accepted unanimously as the word and will of the Lord.
Like Official Declaration 1, this is a section to read with reverence. The Church's own framing, in the heading, is candid that the origins of the prior restriction are not clearly known; the declaration itself is pure good news — the long-promised day had come.
All are alike unto God; the long-promised day (the letter)
The First Presidency's letter is the heart of the declaration. It grounds the change in the expanding work of the Lord across the earth and the desire to extend to every worthy member of the Church all of the privileges and blessings which the gospel affords:
Aware of the promises made by the prophets and presidents of the Church who have preceded us that at some time, in God's eternal plan, all of our brethren who are worthy may receive the priesthood... we have pleaded long and earnestly in behalf of these, our faithful brethren, spending many hours in the Upper Room of the Temple supplicating the Lord for divine guidance. — Official Declaration 2
The answer is announced with quiet majesty:
He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has confirmed that the long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood, with power to exercise its divine authority, and enjoy with his loved ones every blessing that flows therefrom, including the blessings of the temple. Accordingly, all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color. — Official Declaration 2
Two things stand out. First, the blessing is whole: not only ordination but every blessing that flows therefrom, including the blessings of the temple — the sealing of families, the work for the dead, the fulness of what the Restoration offers. Second, the only standard named is worthiness: the single, universal qualification for the priesthood, without regard for race or color. The Book of Mormon's declaration that all are alike unto God — black and white, bond and free, male and female (2 Nephi 26:33) — is here made fully effectual in the priesthood and the temple.
The word and will of the Lord (the sustaining)
What was presented to the Church was not merely a policy but a revelation to be sustained by covenant:
Recognizing Spencer W. Kimball as the prophet, seer, and revelator, and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is proposed that we as a constituent assembly accept this revelation as the word and will of the Lord. — Official Declaration 2
The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous in the affirmative. — Official Declaration 2
As with the Manifesto, the principle of common consent (Section 26:2) is at work: the revelation came through the prophet and was received by the whole Church with raised hands. The phrase the word and will of the Lord deliberately echoes the only other section given through a President other than Joseph Smith — Brigham Young's Word and Will of the Lord (Section 136). The Church accepted the 1978 revelation exactly as it had accepted the great revelations of the past: as the voice of the Lord to His people, sustained by covenant.
How this declaration is built
The structure is an announcement enclosing a letter. The heading sets the doctrinal and historical context (all are alike unto God; the prior restriction and its unclear origins; the leaders' prayerful seeking). The announcement by President Tanner (September 30, 1978) reports that the revelation came to President Kimball after extended meditation and prayer in the sacred rooms of the holy temple, and was approved unanimously by his counselors, the Twelve, and all the General Authorities. The First Presidency's letter (June 8, 1978) is the substance: the long-promised day has come; every worthy male member may receive the priesthood and every blessing of the temple, without regard for race or color. And the sustaining vote (the constituent assembly accepting the revelation as the word and will of the Lord, unanimous in the affirmative). The architecture moves from context to revelation to covenant acceptance — a prophet's long pleading answered, announced, and sustained by the whole Church.
How this sits in the documentary record
Where this lands
Official Declaration 2 is the Doctrine and Covenants closing on a note of pure joy — the long-promised day. For much of the Church's history, faithful black members had been baptized, had borne testimony, had lived consecrated lives, and yet had not been able to receive the priesthood or the fulness of the temple's blessings. The Church's own heading is honest that the origins of that restriction are not clearly known and that it took a revelation to lift it. And lift it the revelation did, completely: every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood... including the blessings of the temple... without regard for race or color. The single qualification left standing is the one that was always meant to be the only one — worthiness, the heart turned to God. The Book of Mormon had taught from the beginning that all are alike unto God; in 1978 that truth became fully effectual in the ordinances of salvation.
There is something deeply fitting in how the blessing is framed: not merely permission to be ordained, but every blessing that flows therefrom, including the blessings of the temple — the sealing of families, the work for the dead, the binding of generations that the whole Doctrine and Covenants has been building toward (Sections 110, 128, 138). The gospel's promise is that no faithful soul will be left outside the gathering; Official Declaration 2 removed the last barrier that kept any worthy member from the temple's fulness. And it came the way the Lord's word always comes to His Church — through a prophet who pleaded long and earnestly, received by revelation in the holy temple, and sustained by the covenant assent of the whole people as the word and will of the Lord. The book that opened with the Lord's voice of warning to all the world (Section 1) closes with His voice of welcome to all His children — every nation, every race, every worthy soul, alike unto God, invited home.