House of Aaron

Heritage

The House of Aaron, also known as the Order of Aaron, grew from the ministry of Maurice L. Glendenning, who taught from the 1930s that he and his followers held a calling among the descendants of Aaron; the community organized in Utah and established its gathered settlement at Eskdale in the state's western desert in the 1950s, known regionally for its farming and its music.

Theological family

By self-description a Christian body with a Levitical consecration, looking to Christ and practicing gathered community life; it emerged in Latter Day Saint country and is classified with the movement by reference works, while describing its own calling in biblical rather than Latter Day Saint terms. Trinitarian bodies differ with the broader movement over authority and Scripture; nothing is adjudicated here.

Who decides what

A chief high priest and bishops lead the order and its gathered community.

What a first-time visitor would find

Community worship with strong choral and instrumental music — the Eskdale community is known for it — alongside consecrated communal life.

What it has always cared about

Consecration, community of goods at its gathered settlement, and music.

Its gift to the wider church

A rare living American example of gathered, consecrated community life sustained across generations in the desert.

Commonly confused with

With LDS and fundamentalist Latter Day Saint bodies, from which it is organizationally and doctrinally distinct; it does not practice plural marriage.

Range of views inside it

With one small gathered community and scattered members, variation is not the operative question.

Where House of Aaron churches are on the map

1 House of Aaron congregations appear on The Church Map, across 1 states.

• Utah — 1