Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)

Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) belongs to the Latter Day Saint movement family of churches.

Governance: hierarchical.

Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) reports 64 congregations in the United States (RCMS 2020 (ARDA national table), 2020).

A Latter Day Saint movement church from western Pennsylvania that kept the Book of Mormon and refused the Nauvoo developments — known for its hymn-singing and missionary warmth.

Heritage

The Church of Jesus Christ, headquartered at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, descends from members who had followed Sidney Rigdon after Joseph Smith's death in 1844; when Rigdon's organization dissolved, William Bickerton continued the work and organized the church in 1862 in Green Oak, Pennsylvania. It grew notably among Italian-American communities in the early twentieth century and carries on domestic and international missions.

Theological family

By self-description, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ: the Bible and the Book of Mormon as Scripture, faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands — while rejecting plural marriage, baptism for the dead, and the later Nauvoo-era doctrines of the larger LDS tradition. Trinitarian bodies differ with Latter Day Saint movement churches over authority and Scripture; the disagreement is recorded, not adjudicated.

Who decides what

A quorum of twelve apostles leads the church, with evangelists, elders, teachers and deacons; there is no salaried ministry.

What a first-time visitor would find

Sunday worship is warm and congregational — fervent hymn-singing (the church cherishes its own hymnody), testimony, preaching, weekly or regular communion, and footwashing observed periodically; women wear head coverings in many congregations.

What it has always cared about

Missions at home and abroad; the Book of Mormon's promises concerning the Americas; unpaid ministry; and community warmth that members will describe before doctrine.

Its gift to the wider church

RCMS 2020 counts 64 congregations — a small church, but among Latter Day Saint movement bodies it offers the clearest living example of the tradition's pre-Nauvoo shape carried forward with congregational warmth.

Commonly confused with

With the LDS Church (Salt Lake City), from which it differs in history and much doctrine; with Community of Christ and the Temple Lot church, other restoration branches; the shared names mislead constantly.

Range of views inside it

Congregations vary in practice details such as head covering and footwashing frequency; doctrine is set by the apostles and general conference.

A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of a specific congregation. RCMS 2020 counts 64 congregations in the United States. Sentences drawn from this record hedge as "congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ typically…" and yield to the church's own materials.

Sources: The Church of Jesus Christ — Faith and Doctrine (The Church of Jesus Christ, Monongahela PA) · Scattering of the Saints: Schism within Mormonism (Newell G. Bringhurst and John C. Hamer, eds., John Whitmer Books) · 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB)

Where Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) churches are on the map

1 Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.

More of the Latter Day Saint movement story · Find these churches on the map