Community of Christ

Heritage

Latter Day Saints who did not go west with Brigham Young reorganized in 1860 at Amboy, Illinois around Joseph Smith III, the founder's son, as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Headquartered at Independence, Missouri, the church ordained women beginning in 1984, dedicated its spiral-towered Independence Temple to the pursuit of peace in 1994, and in 2001 took the name Community of Christ.

Theological family

By its own description, Community of Christ proclaims Jesus Christ and promotes communities of joy, hope, love and peace; it affirms the Trinity in its official statements of belief, holds Scripture — Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants — as normative with the Bible foundational, and practices open communion. It stands notably closer to mainline Protestantism than to the LDS Church, and says so itself; where the two churches differ, each describes the other only carefully, and so does this record.

Who decides what

A First Presidency, Council of Twelve and other quorums lead the church, with a World Conference of delegates as the legislative body; the church continues to receive counsel presented by its prophet-president to the conference for common consent.

What a first-time visitor would find

A visitor finds worship that feels broadly mainline Protestant — hymns from Community of Christ Sings, Scripture, sermon, and open communion offered to all who follow Christ; congregations are typically small and strongly relational, with the church's peace emphasis visible in prayer and mission.

What it has always cared about

The pursuit of peace — the Daily Prayer for Peace has been offered at the Temple since 1994; the worth of all persons; common consent in governance; and a willingness to let its understanding develop, which the church itself names as continuing revelation.

Its gift to the wider church

Community of Christ shows the wider church a body that walked out of the same 1844 crisis as its larger cousin and arrived somewhere entirely different — a living demonstration that heritage is not destiny, and its Temple dedicated to peace is unique in American church architecture.

Commonly confused with

With the LDS Church constantly — separate since the 1840s, differing today on priesthood, temple practice, and much theology; the two describe each other respectfully but are not related bodies in any current organizational sense. Also with the Remnant Church and other restoration branches in the Independence area.

Range of views inside it

The church spans members who cherish its restoration heritage and members oriented to its mainline-Protestant present; congregations vary on how much the Book of Mormon features in teaching. Recent decades' changes led some congregations toward restorationist separations, which the church acknowledges.

Where Community of Christ churches are on the map

24 Community of Christ congregations appear on The Church Map, across 14 states.

• Missouri — 8
• Ohio — 3
• Iowa — 2
• Arkansas — 1
• Arizona — 1
• District of Columbia — 1
• Idaho — 1
• Illinois — 1
• Maine — 1
• Michigan — 1

Moments this body was part of

• 1830–1847 — The Latter Day Saint movement begins

  Joseph Smith organized the Church of Christ in Fayette, New York in 1830, teaching that it was the restoration of the original church, with the Book of Mormon as new scripture. Driven from New York, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois — Smith was killed by a mob in 1844 — the main body followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints describes itself as the restored church of Jesus Christ; trinitarian bodies generally do not recognize its baptism, and this map records the movement's own account without adjudicating it.