Community of Christ - History

History

Formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this denomination regards itself as a reorganization of the church organized in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr., and it regards Joseph Smith III, the eldest surviving son of Smith Jr., to have been his legitimate successor. The church was "legally organized on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, New York". The formal reorganization occurred on April 6, 1860, in Amboy, Illinois, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, adding the word Reorganized to the church name in 1872.

The Community of Christ today considers the period from 1830 to 1844 to be a part of its early history and from 1844, the year of the death of the founder, to 1860, to be a period of disorganization. Since 1844 the doctrines and practices of the Community of Christ have evolved separately from the other denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Since the 1960s the church’s proselytizing with other world cultures in countries outside North America forced a re-assessment and a gradual evolution of its denominational practices and beliefs. Some changes included the ordination of women to the priesthood, open communion, and changing the church's commonly-used name from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the current name in April 2001.

These changes in the church's practices and beliefs were very controversial, leading to the formation of breakaway churches such as the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; in 1994, former church historian Richard P. Howard estimated that 25,000 members had left to join such groups. Between the mid-1960s and the late 1990s there was a one-third decline in new baptisms in the United States and there was a 50% drop in contributions in the decade before 1998.

The church owns two temples, the Kirtland Temple dedicated in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, (operated in part as a historic site as part of its educational ministry), and the relatively new Independence Temple, which serves as the church's headquarters in Independence. These structures are open to the public and are also used for education and gatherings. The church also owns and operates some Latter Day Saint historic sites in Far West, Missouri; Lamoni, Iowa; and Plano and Nauvoo, Illinois. The Auditorium in Independence, Missouri, houses the Children's Peace Pavilion and is the site of the major legislative assembly of the Community of Christ, known as the World Conference. The church sponsors Graceland University with a campus in Lamoni, Iowa, and another in Independence, where the School of Nursing and the Community of Christ Seminary are based.