Restoration Branches

The Restoration Branches movement is a Christian/Latter Day Saint religious sect which was formed in the 1980s by members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) in a reaction against the events of the RLDS 1984 world conference. The movement holds in the traditional RLDS theology of the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries and hold that events leading up to and surrounding the 1980s and decades since have introduced sweeping, fundamental changes into RLDS doctrine and practice which are illegitimate because they contradict the long-standing RLDS theological tradition this sect holds as true.

The movement is centered around Independence, Missouri which followers believe, as Joseph Smith Jr. and Joseph Smith III taught, is the centerplace of Zion.

Traditionally, the "branch" is a local congregational unit in the RLDS church. The term "Restoration" was added as a result of the schism to denote a branch's separation from the organizational hierarchy and inferring what participants see as loyalty to the original principles of the Restoration of Joseph Smith Jr. and the Reorganization of Joseph Smith III in stark contrast to the liberal theology embraced by the Community of Christ.

The Restoration Branch organizers considered the official RLDS church organization to have become corrupt or to have fallen into apostasy, and thus the body of true believers is in a state of "disorganization". Their primary disagreement with the Community of Christ, as the official RLDS church organization renamed itself in 2001, was nominally over the church's decision to ordain women to the priesthood. Restoration Branches continue to assert that only men have priesthood authority; however, other religious and doctrinal issues were and are also disputed.

No universally recognized central organization exists currently within the Restoration Branch movement, so any figures concerning membership numbers are difficult to ascertain. The Joint Conference of Restoration Branches was reported as having 6,000 to 7,000 registered members as of 2010. However, all persons baptized by authoritative RLDS priesthood are regarded as "church members" by the conference regardless of formal registration, conference affiliation (or lack thereof) including non-affiliated branches, members of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and even some Community of Christ members (depending on the circumstances of their baptism, given the movement's stance against women in the priesthood) and so what fraction of the total recognized membership are registered with the conference is unknown but it is considerably higher than the registered number.