Supreme Directional Control

The Supreme directional control controversy in the Latter Day Saint movement was a dispute among the primary leadership quorums of the Community of Christ (then known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), the movement's second largest denomination, that began in the 1920s and had repercussions in that church for decades. Frederick Madison Smith, then president of the church, asserted that the First Presidency was supreme over the church rather than the church's General Conference. Many church leaders and hundreds of other adherents left the Community of Christ for other Latter Day Saint churches, most notably the Church of Christ (Temple Lot). Although Dr. Smith was initially successful in asserting the First Presidency's authority over the Council of Twelve Apostles and Presiding Bishopric, the ensuing schism proved hard to heal, and the administrative changes were short-lived. By 1931, the church's debts and the onset of the Great Depression allowed the Bishopric to reassert its authority over church finances.