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The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism pp 35–55Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Evolving Ecclesiastical Organization of an International Lay Church

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Abstract

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been in continual organizational evolution since its founding in 1830. Initially drawing on scriptural terminology and precedents, its founder, Joseph Smith, appropriated organizational elements from other contemporaneous Christian traditions, and then he and his successors largely charted their own course as the church grew numerically and geographically and responded to a changing cultural milieu.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cross, Whitney R., The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850 (New York: Harper & Row, 1950).

  2. 2.

    Prince, Gregory A., Power from on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995).

  3. 3.

    Photocopy of John Whitmer license, dated June 9, 1830. Archive of the Community of Christ, Independence, MO.

  4. 4.

    Photograph of License reproduced in Donald Q. Cannon, “Licensing in the Early Church,” Brigham Young University Studies 22, no. 1 (Winter 1982): 97.

  5. 5.

    https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/license-for-christian-whitmer-9-june-1830/1.

  6. 6.

    Book of Mormon, Moroni 4:3 (bread) and 5:2 (wine); Doctrine and Covenants 20:77 (bread) and 20:79 (wine/water).

  7. 7.

    Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:25.

  8. 8.

    Doctrine and Covenants 20:73.

  9. 9.

    Whitmer, David, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: David Whitmer, 1887): 50–51.

  10. 10.

    Doctrine and Covenants 38:32.

  11. 11.

    Smith, Emma, A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Kirtland: F. G. Williams & co., 1835).

  12. 12.

    Anderson, Devery S. and Gary James Bergera, eds., Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842–1845. A Documentary History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2005).

  13. 13.

    Quinn, D. Michael, “The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844,” Brigham Young University Studies 16, no. 2 (Spring 1976): 1–44.

  14. 14.

    Later titles of the book included General Handbook of Instructions and, currently, Church Handbook of Instructions.

  15. 15.

    Smoot’s two opponents won a combined total of only sixteen votes. The 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1913, shifted senatorial elections to popular vote.

  16. 16.

    United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Privileges and Elections, Proceedings before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate in the matter of the protests against the right of Hon. Reed Smoot, a senator from the state of Utah, to hold his seat … (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904–1906), 4 volumes.

  17. 17.

    Although the number of new plural marriages dropped substantially after 1890, the practice continued “underground.” See Quinn, D. Michael, “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1985): 9–105. Even after the Second Manifesto, these plural marriages continued among highly placed church leaders and select laity.

  18. 18.

    Prince, Gregory A. and Wm. Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005).

  19. 19.

    Smith, Joseph F., Conference Report, April 1906, p. 3.

  20. 20.

    Prince and Wright, David O. McKay, chapter 7.

  21. 21.

    The Auckland, New Zealand Stake was formed in 1958, at the same time the New Zealand Temple was dedicated.

  22. 22.

    Neilson, Reid L. and Carson V. Teuscher, eds., Pacific Apostle: The 1920–21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saints Island Missions (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020). Cannon, Hugh J. (Reid L. Neilson, ed.), To the Peripheries of Mormondom: The Apostolic Around-the-World Journey of David O. McKay, 1920–1921 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2011).

  23. 23.

    More recently, the three-hour bloc was reduced to two hours, with one hour of worship service and one hour of classroom instruction.

  24. 24.

    Data are from various editions of the Deseret News Church Almanac, which was published from 1971 until 2013.

  25. 25.

    Pentecostalism, which is nearly a century younger than Mormonism, now includes a half-billion members, approximately 30-fold more than Mormonism. Although there is no single, centralized Pentecostal church organization, the entire movement is still many-fold larger than the sum of all churches descended from Joseph Smith’s. Seventh Day Adventism, however, has enjoyed continuous, large-scale growth that surpasses LDS growth.

  26. 26.

    These numbers are derived from the statistical report from the annual General Conferences in April of each year, as published in the May issue of the Ensign.

  27. 27.

    I participated in the survey and possess a hard copy. While never published, it was circulated to thought leaders in the church, including members of the presiding councils.

  28. 28.

    Riess, Jana, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).

  29. 29.

    Prince, Gregory A., Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019).

  30. 30.

    That website has been replaced by mormonandgay.churchofjesuschrist.org.

  31. 31.

    Prince and Wright, David O. McKay, chapter 4.

  32. 32.

    https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/02/01/latter-day-saints-want/.

  33. 33.

    Riess, The Next Mormons.

  34. 34.

    Prince, Power from on High.

  35. 35.

    Prince, Gregory A., Lester E. Bush and Brent N. Rushforth, “Gerontocracy and the Future of Mormonism,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 49, no. 3 (Autumn 2016): 89–108.

  36. 36.

    Edwin Firmage interviewed by Gregory A. Prince, June 6, 1995 and October 10, 1996.

Bibliography

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Potomac, MD, USA

    Gregory A. Prince

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  1. Gregory A. Prince
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Correspondence to Gregory A. Prince .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, USA

    R. Gordon Shepherd

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    A. Gary Shepherd

  3. University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA

    Ryan T. Cragun

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Prince, G.A. (2020). The Evolving Ecclesiastical Organization of an International Lay Church. In: Shepherd, R.G., Shepherd, A.G., Cragun, R.T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52616-0_2

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