Denomination
Community of Christ
Who Community of Christ is, how it came to be, what they teach in their own words on seven questions, and each position tested against Scripture.
Community of Christ
A church that traces itself to 1830 and to Joseph Smith, reorganized in 1860, now led by a prophet-president, with the Bible and two added books as scripture, an open table, and a mission of peace.
Community of Christ tells its story in eras: restoration, reorganization and worldwide community. It counts its beginning at the founding of 1830, and it counts 1860 as the year Joseph Smith III took leadership of the scattered church. In its own telling, the line runs through founding, loss, gathering again, and a late-century turn toward peace, wider ministry and a new name.
The Church of Christ is organized
After the publication of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and a small group of believers established a new church. The church dates its own beginning here.
Kirtland, and the center place at Independence
By January 1831 Joseph Smith and his wife Emma had reached Kirtland, Ohio, where the church was headquartered for seven years. A revelation of August 1831 named Independence, Missouri, as the center place of Zion.
The Doctrine and Covenants and the first hymnal
A compilation of Joseph Smith's revelations, the Doctrine and Covenants, was printed in Kirtland. The church says its congregations have had hymnals since Emma Smith's first collection of hymns in 1835.
Joseph Smith is killed and the church divides
A mob stormed the jail at Carthage, Illinois, and killed Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. The church was left without a clear leader, and over the next sixteen years the movement fractured into many factions. Those who opposed polygamy were scattered and without a leader or an organized church.
Joseph Smith III is ordained president
After a time of prayerful soul searching, the founder's son Joseph Smith III traveled to a gathering of church members at Amboy, Illinois, and was ordained president. His church is the one that became Community of Christ.
Lamoni, Iowa
Joseph Smith III moved his family, the church offices and the printing presses of Herald Publishing House to a new settlement at Lamoni, Iowa. By the end of the century many members had returned to Independence.
Section 156 and the ordination of women
World Conference delegates voted to accept a document from President Wallace B. Smith and make it part of the Doctrine and Covenants. The church says it opened the way to full participation of the church's women in priesthood ministry.
The Independence Temple
Ground was broken on 6 April 1990, and the temple was dedicated in 1994 to the pursuit of peace, reconciliation and healing of the spirit.
A president from outside the Smith family
Wallace B. Smith named W. Grant McMurray as his successor. It was the first time someone outside the Smith family led the church.
A new name
The church became officially known as Community of Christ, to state its mission to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love and peace.
World Conference asks about baptism and membership
World Conference adopted a resolution asking the president to pray and study over persons baptized before age eight becoming members through confirmation after that age. A churchwide discernment followed in 2025 and 2026.
The first woman prophet-president
Stassi D. Cramm was ordained the ninth prophet-president of the church, following Stephen M. Veazey, who had been ordained in 2005.
Joseph Smith Jr.
The church calls him the founder of its movement. Revelations through him make up the first Doctrine and Covenants, and the church dates its beginning to the organization he led in 1830.
Joseph Smith III
The founder's son, ordained president at Amboy on 6 April 1860. The Herald was first published in 1860 and became the church's voice under him. He sent missionaries overseas and led the church from Plano and then Lamoni. The church credits him with the emphasis on Jesus Christ and the call to be peacemakers.
Frederick M. Smith
A son of Joseph III. He believed the community could show the world how the gospel could bring social change, and he worked to build Zion as the peaceable kingdom. Work on the Auditorium in Independence began in 1926.
Wallace B. Smith
During his time as president many reforms came in, which the church lists as the ordination of women to priesthood roles, the opening of Communion to all Christians regardless of denomination, and bridges to other faith communities.
W. Grant McMurray
The first president from outside the Smith family. The church took the name Community of Christ during his time. He resigned in 2004 without naming a successor, and the church discerned its next president together.
Stassi D. Cramm
The ninth prophet-president and the first woman to hold the office. At World Conference 2025 she invited the church into a season of prophetic imagination.
What the church says about its own course. Its history page says the movement was born in an age of reform, revival and restoration, when many believers hoped to restore "the ancient order of things" of the New Testament church. It also tells hard parts plainly. It says the Nauvoo years brought a growing centralization of church and civil authority, that members spoke of non-members as "Gentiles," and that the dispute over polygamy divided the movement after 1844. Joseph Smith III and the church he led, as the church tells it, rebuilt on a separate course, with a stress on Christ and peace.
Terms. The church now calls its general gathering World Conference and its local bodies congregations, grouped in mission centers. Before 2001 it was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and that name appears in its older records.
The Bible is the foundational scripture, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants are scripture beside it, and God still speaks to the church today.
Community of Christ affirms the Bible as the foundational scripture and says it uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants not to replace the Bible but because they confirm its message. The Doctrine and Covenants is an open canon: each prophet-president has added revelations, and the church received Section 156 in 1984. The church says scripture is trustworthy and unfailingly reliable for the purposes it serves, but not inerrant, and it interprets scripture by the Spirit, with the community. It guides its discernment by six lenses, which it names as scripture, tradition, knowledge and reason, personal and communal experience, continuing revelation, and common consent. The First Presidency acts as the church's chief interpreters of scripture and revelation. The church says its Basic Beliefs are offered "not as the last word."
We affirm the Bible as the foundational scripture for the church. In addition, Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—not to replace the witness of the Bible or improve on it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God.
every prophet-president of our church has added new revelations to this book of scripture, which remains an open canon.
Scripture is vital and essential to the church, but not because it is inerrant (in the sense that every detail is historically or scientifically correct). Scripture makes no such claim for itself.
Discernment. The church describes its method this way: "The six lenses of Discovering God's Will (scripture, tradition, knowledge and reason, personal and communal experience, continuing revelation, and common consent) continue to guide the entire discernment process" (Baptism and Membership). Of the Spirit and scripture it says: "Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide his disciples into new truth (John 16:12–15)." Its Enduring Principles say: "God graciously reveals divine will today as in the past." The First Presidency's own statement says it "will act in its calling as chief interpreters of scripture, revelation, and church policies."
Salvation is the gift of God's grace through faith and repentance; baptism by immersion, from age eight, is how a person first expresses lifelong discipleship and enters the church.
The church teaches that the gospel is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, including forgiveness of sin, and that this new life is the gift of God's grace that becomes ours "through faith and repentance." It teaches baptism as a public act in which a person chooses to follow Christ, turns toward God and enters a covenant with God and the community of disciples. Baptism is by immersion, to symbolize death to sin and a new life. A person old enough to decide may be baptized, which the church counts as age eight and older. Younger children are blessed. After baptism a person is confirmed by the laying on of hands, and confirmation marks membership. In the pages read for this chart, the church does not describe baptism as given for the remission of sins. In 2025 and 2026 it has been discerning whether a person baptized in another tradition before age eight may become a member by confirmation alone, and the First Presidency says it is united in the belief that baptism, confirmation and intentional discipleship are essential.
This new life is the loving gift of God's grace that becomes ours through faith and repentance. Baptism is how we initially express our commitment to lifelong discipleship. As we yield our lives to Christ in baptism we enter Christian community (the body of Christ) and have the promise of salvation.
In baptism, we are immersed in water to symbolize death to sin and raised from the water to begin a new life.
People old enough to make their own decision may be baptized in Community of Christ. This is considered the age of 8 and older.
What baptism is called. The church describes baptism as "a public act announcing you are choosing to follow Jesus Christ with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength," a decision "turning toward God, and entering a covenant relationship to the community of disciples and God." It says baptism "represents a first step toward membership." Its Basic Beliefs say forgiveness of sin is part of the gospel, and they connect it to faith and repentance, not to the water.
The 2023 resolution and what followed. The church does not now receive by confirmation alone a person baptized as an infant elsewhere. World Conference asked the president to pray and study the question in 2023, and the First Presidency opened a discernment in June 2025. The church reports that support did not reach the 80 percent it sets as its threshold, that the people were deeply divided, and that the discernment continues.
Communion is shared on the first Sunday of each month and on special occasions; all who believe in Christ are welcome, and the church serves bread and grape juice.
The church calls the Lord's Supper a sacrament and shares it on the first Sunday of each month in the congregation and on special occasions. It is open: all who believe in Christ, whether members or not, are welcome, and the church's own words add that belief "usually is expressed in water baptism." Its stated purposes are to remember the life, death, resurrection and continuing presence of Jesus Christ, to celebrate again baptism and confirmation covenants, to reconcile relationships and to recommit to the church's mission. Preparation includes reconciling with others, confessing faults and asking and offering forgiveness. Ordained ministers serve bread and grape juice. The First Presidency's 2020 guidelines say a priest or a Melchisedec priesthood member reads the prayers of blessing, and that participants are encouraged to kneel if possible. The church counted the opening of Communion to all Christians among the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Communion meal is shared the first Sunday of each month in the congregation and on special occasions.
All who believe in Christ, which usually is expressed in water baptism, whether members of Community of Christ or not, are welcome to share the Lord's Supper.
This is an opportunity to celebrate again our baptism and confirmation covenants, reconcile relationships, and mutually recommit to the church's mission.
The church's account of grace. Its Sacraments page says: "Sacraments bring God's grace, the influence of the Holy Spirit, and the example of the life of Jesus Christ together with one's personal commitment of faith." The First Presidency quotes its own Section 162: "It is not the form of the sacrament that dispenses grace but it is the divine presence that gives life." The church lists the elements as "Bread and wine (such as unfermented grape juice, water, or other unfermented beverages)" and says that if no priest is present in an online setting, participants "may take the emblems for themselves from a designated plate or location."
The invitation. The church's Communion page says: "Others may have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord's Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ."
A First Presidency under a prophet-president leads the church; apostles, bishops and other ordained priesthood offices serve, and women and men are ordained.
Community of Christ is led by a First Presidency, with the president as prophet. The church says the First Presidency "provides primary leadership." A World Church Leadership Council, convened by the Presidency, brings officers and leaders together. It is "functional and permissive" and does not act as a board of directors, but it has authority to establish, alter or disorganize mission centers. Apostles are missionary witnesses who work with mission centers, and the Presiding Bishopric is part of the council. Priesthood is a sacred covenant, and the church lists eight offices: deacon, teacher, priest, elder, high priest, seventy, evangelist and bishop. Ordination is a sacrament that confers authority for the office. Women and men are both ordained, following Section 156 of 1984. A congregation is led by a pastor, whom the church calls its presiding elder, and the congregation elects its pastor every year. Members take part in decisions by common consent, with voice and vote, in congregation, mission center and World Conference. A presider organizes each week's worship. The church also says the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all disciples.
Ordination confers authority on priesthood members according to the responsibilities of their particular priesthood offices.
Priesthood is a sacred covenant with God and the church.
The First Presidency provides primary leadership to the Community of Christ.
The council's powers. The church says: "The council is functional and permissive. It does not operate as a board of directors or trustees for the World Church." It adds: "The Council has the authority to establish Mission Centers according to Article VI, Section 2 of the church organization bylaws. This function includes that authority to alter or disorganize mission centers."
Who sits on the council. The First Presidency, the Council of Twelve Apostles, the Presiding Bishopric, the Presiding Evangelist, the World Church Secretary and other leaders. The church says its apostles are "high priests called and ordained to be special missionary witnesses."
Gifts of all. "Some disciples are called by God and ordained to priesthood offices to serve the mission of the church in specialized ways. The Holy Spirit gives complementary gifts and abilities to all disciples to equip the body of Christ for its witness in the world."
The pastor and common consent. The church's site for inquirers says: "Community of Christ congregations are led by a pastor." It calls the pastor the congregation's presiding elder, after "the 1840s early church tradition," and it says that "pastors are elected annually by their local congregation," and that budgets go to "the appropriate legislative body (congregation, mission center, World Conference) using the process of common consent."
Worship varies by congregation and week: hymns from the church's hymnal with printed keyboard accompaniment, scripture, a message, prayers, and Communion monthly.
Community of Christ says its services vary: different people plan them each week and "no two services will ever be exactly alike." The congregation sings two to four hymns, mostly from Community of Christ Sings, and sometimes other worship music. The hymnal's Musician's edition prints guitar chords representing keyboard accompaniment, and the church's hymnal page offers guitar chords as worship resources. A service includes scripture, a message, and a number of prayers, which the church names as invocations, benedictions, prayers of supplication and, at times, the laying on of hands for healing. On Sundays the congregation offers a prayer for peace for one country. The church's pages read for this chart show prayers offered to God and the Lord's Prayer cited as the prayer Jesus taught, and they show no prayer addressed to anyone else. Sacraments such as confirmation, Communion and the blessing of children follow set forms and prayers.
The congregation will sing two to four hymns at each worship service. Most of these hymns will come from our most recent hymn book, Community of Christ Sings!
All hymns and songs contain guitar chords representing keyboard accompaniment as printed in the Pew Edition.
In addition to the Prayer for Peace, a standard worship service will include a number of prayers, including Invocations, Benedictions, prayers of supplication, and occasionally administration through the laying on of hands for healing or comfort.
Singing. The church says: "Congregational singing has been an important part of Community of Christ gatherings from the founding of the church in 1830." It writes of "the vital role that rich four-part singing has had in our congregations and gatherings." The hymnal page adds, "We believe what we sing and we sing what we believe."
Set forms. The church's guidelines list "Authorized prayers" among the symbols of the Supper, for the blessing prayers over bread and cup, and they state that the marriage covenant of Section 111 "be used as stated." The evangelist blessing and the confirmation of new members also have a prayer by a minister. The same guidelines say the church may adapt its procedures: "Be respectful of tradition and sensitive to one another, but do not be unduly bound by interpretations and procedures that no longer fit the needs of a worldwide church."
What is not stated. The saved pages do not give the wording of the Communion prayers, so this chart does not quote them, and they do not say which instruments a congregation uses in a service.
The Holy Spirit gives life to the church and equips it for mission, and God still reveals divine will today, through the prophet-president and the community.
The church confesses the Holy Spirit as "Giver of Life, holy Wisdom, true God," who moves through creation, endows the church for mission and transforms disciples. It says that wherever love, joy, peace, patience and the other fruit of the Spirit are found, the Spirit is working. It teaches continuing revelation: "By the Holy Spirit we continue to hear God speaking today," and the church is called to listen together for what the Spirit is saying. In confirmation, elders lay hands on new disciples and ask for the Spirit's continued blessing. It gives the sacrament of laying on of hands for the sick, with consecrated oil. The pages read for this chart describe the Spirit's gifts as given to all disciples, and they do not claim tongues or miracles as regular marks of its services.
By the Holy Spirit we continue to hear God speaking today. The church is called to listen together for what the Spirit is saying and then faithfully respond.
God graciously reveals divine will today as in the past.
The Spirit and scripture. "As the church tries to interpret scripture responsibly, it seeks the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide his disciples into new truth (John 16:12–15)." The church's final affirmation commits it "to live and interpret the witness of scripture by the Spirit, with the community, for the sake of mission, in the name of the Prince of Peace."
Christ will come and judge; the church does not know the day, hopes for the peaceable kingdom to embrace all creation, and holds that God's grace has no bounds.
The church teaches that the future belongs to the Prince of Peace, that Christ is risen and that by faith disciples share in eternal life now. It affirms that "Jesus Christ is advocate and judge of the living and the dead," and it says it does not know the day or hour of his coming. It speaks of the Reign of God as the coming triumph of love, justice, mercy and peace, and of Zion as the call to form Christ-centered communities now. Its pages say that salvation is experienced through Jesus Christ, "but affirm that God's grace has no bounds, and God's love is greater than we can know." The pages read for this chart do not describe the final state of those who reject the gospel.
We do not know the day or hour of Christ's coming but know only that God is faithful.
We affirm in scripture's light that Jesus Christ is advocate and judge of the living and the dead.
The Reign of God is the coming triumph of love, justice, mercy, and peace that one day will embrace all of creation.
Zion. The church says Zion "expresses our commitment to herald God's peaceable kingdom on Earth by forming Christ-centered communities in families, congregations, neighborhoods, cities, and throughout the world." It also holds that a revelation of August 1831 named Independence, Missouri, as the center place of Zion, and the Independence Temple stands there.
An open canon beside the Bible
Two added books and a Doctrine and Covenants that each prophet-president may add to.
The church uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture beside the Bible. It calls the Doctrine and Covenants an open canon, and it says each prophet-president has added revelations. It holds that this is faithful to the Bible, not in place of it.
The Doctrine and Covenants is a collection of scriptures forming an open canon, received or submitted by prophet-presidents throughout the history of the Restoration Movement.
Our unique contribution was to write down our revelations and canonize them as scripture.
Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
The apostles said the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), and Paul put any "gospel other than that which we preached" under a curse (Galatians 1:8). A church that adds books and keeps adding revelations stands on ground the apostles did not lay, however sincere the writers and however much the added books praise Christ. The weighing does not rest on what the new books say about Jesus. It rests on whether the faith is still being delivered, and the New Testament says it was delivered once. The church's open door to new revelation also means that nothing it holds is fixed, since a later prophet may revise it.
Credit. The church puts the Bible first, calls it the foundational scripture, and says its other books do not improve on the Bible's witness. That is more restrained than a church that places a living voice above the written word.
Scripture that is not inerrant, and six lenses
Scripture is reliable for its purposes but not inerrant, and the church weighs questions by six lenses.
The church says scripture is trustworthy and unfailingly reliable for its purposes, but not inerrant, and that Scripture makes no such claim for itself. It decides hard questions through six lenses: scripture, tradition, knowledge and reason, personal and communal experience, continuing revelation, and common consent.
The six lenses of Discovering God's Will (scripture, tradition, knowledge and reason, personal and communal experience, continuing revelation, and common consent) continue to guide the entire discernment process.
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.
Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
Paul says scripture is "inspired of God" and makes the man of God "furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bereans received the word "examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and so used scripture as the test of what they heard, even from an apostle. When scripture is one lens among six, with tradition, reason, experience and the current voice of the church beside it, the test has become a vote among equals, and the word of God no longer stands over the church. The church is right that the Spirit guides (John 16:13), but Jesus promised that guidance to the apostles he was addressing, and what they received is written in the New Testament.
Where the church is close. It holds that the Bible is trustworthy and that it anchors people in revelation and nurtures discipleship. It also invites its members to study scripture themselves. That is nearer the apostles than a church that forbids its members to read.
Women ordained to priesthood office
Since Section 156 (1984) women and men are both ordained, and a woman now leads the church.
On 5 April 1984 World Conference accepted a document submitted by President Wallace B. Smith as Section 156, which the church says opened the way to the full participation of its women in priesthood ministry. The text says some women of the church are being called to priesthood responsibilities. In 2025 Stassi D. Cramm was ordained the church's president and prophet, the first woman to hold it.
Section 156 opened the way to full participation of the church's women in priesthood ministry.
Therefore, do not wonder that some women of the church are being call to priesthood responsibilities.
But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then Eve;
The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly.
and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more accurately.
Paul tied the rule to creation, not to local custom: "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man" because "Adam was first formed, then Eve" (1 Timothy 2:12-13). The overseer is to be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), and the elders Titus appointed in every city are men, "the husband of one wife" (Titus 1:5-6). Women served in the first church with honor. Priscilla, with Aquila, "expounded unto him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26), and Paul commends Phoebe as a servant of the church (Romans 16:1). Their service was not the oversight and public teaching Paul reserved for men. The church reached its decision by a vote of delegates, after a revelation in 1984, and a rule grounded in creation does not change by revelation or by vote. Women's ordination departs from the pattern, and the office of president, now held by a woman, carries the departure to the top.
Credit. The church's women serve widely, and the church honors their gifts. The weighing is only of the office. Women taught, prophesied, hosted churches and carried letters in the New Testament, and the church that restores that place in full does well.
Eight sacraments, including the evangelist blessing
Baptism, confirmation, Communion, marriage, blessing of children, laying on of hands for the sick, ordination and the evangelist blessing.
The church teaches that sacraments are special ministries given to the church to convey the grace of Jesus Christ, and that in them God sanctifies common elements of creation to bless life. It counts eight, and it adds an evangelist blessing, a prayer by an evangelist offered after a time of preparation to individuals, couples, families, groups and congregations.
Sacraments are special ministries given to the church to convey the grace of Jesus Christ to his followers and all those he yearns to touch with his compassion.
Community of Christ has eight sacraments, most of which are celebrated in worship experiences at appropriate times.
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;
The New Testament commands baptism and the Supper, and it shows the elders praying and anointing the sick (James 5:14). It shows the Spirit given by the apostles' hands, and it shows no rite of confirmation kept by ministers after them, and no evangelist blessing. The church grounds the evangelist blessing in Jesus' prayer for his disciples, but his prayer for them was not given as a rite for an office to administer. Each of these rites is a practice of the church, and the New Testament does not command it. Where the church says grace is conveyed through them, it puts the rites of ministers between the believer and Christ, who is "one mediator also between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5). The church itself says it is the divine presence, not the form, that gives life, and that is the better word.
Credit. The church's own statement is that the form is not what dispenses grace. It counsels flexibility, and its sacraments are celebrated mostly in worship, among the people. Anointing the sick by elders is in James 5:14.
Zion, the center place, and the Independence Temple
Zion as a call to build peaceable communities, with Independence, Missouri, named as the center place.
The church teaches Zion as a commitment to herald God's peaceable kingdom by forming Christ-centered communities. It holds that a revelation of August 1831 named Independence, Missouri, as the center place of Zion. The temple there, dedicated in 1994, serves as a place of worship, learning and administration, and each day a prayer for peace is offered there for a different country.
"Zion" expresses our commitment to herald God's peaceable kingdom on Earth by forming Christ-centered communities in families, congregations, neighborhoods, cities, and throughout the world.
A revelation given in August 1831 designated Independence, Missouri, as the center place of Zion—a promised land for God’s chosen people.
but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.
The Christian's Zion is not a place on earth. "ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22), and the city John saw comes "down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2). Jesus told the woman at the well that worship would be tied to neither mountain nor Jerusalem: "neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father" (John 4:21). A center place in Missouri rests on a revelation outside the New Testament, and it puts a place at the center where the New Testament puts Christ. The church's mission of peace and its care for the poor are good, and the charge is against the place, not the mission.
Credit. The call to form communities where "there will be no poor" has a pattern in the first church (Acts 2:44-45, 4:34-35), and the church's work for peace and justice is sincere and wide.
The test is the same for every body: what the New Testament shows the first-century church doing and teaching, set beside what Community of Christ holds today. The church holds added scripture and a prophet-president whose revelations enter its canon, so it has no lane on this site's lineage chart, and each placement below is authored on the lineage rubric's questions with the reason given. Community of Christ stands nearest the pattern in its immersion of believers, in its open table that serves real bread and the fruit of the vine, and in its gentle, searching tone. It stands far from it in what it adds to scripture and in the offices it sets over the congregation.
The church puts the Bible first and says its added books do not improve on it, and that is to its credit. But it binds two more books and a living prophet beside the Bible, and the Bible says it is complete: scripture makes "the man of God" "furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). On the lineage rubric an added book and continuing revelation take the last rung for the rule of faith, and an institution that supplies what scripture does not say takes the last rung for its silence, as eight sacraments and a canon that grows with each president do. The bound teaching is lighter than in some bodies, so the three questions average a step short of the far end. This chart moves the placement that one step, to the far end, for a reason the three questions do not reach: the church does not only add books beside the Bible, it also lowers the Bible itself. It calls scripture not inerrant, weighs it as one lens of six beside tradition, reason, experience, continuing revelation and common consent, and keeps its canon open to each new president, so no fixed text stands over the church to correct it.
What the average shows. On the three rubric questions the church scores at the far end for its rule of faith and for the silence of scripture, and about the middle for bound teaching, because it keeps its Basic Beliefs open and says they are not the last word. Rounded, that is a step short of the far end, and the reason in the verdict above is why this chart does not stop there.
The Spirit's promise. The church reads John 16:12-15 as a promise of "new truth" to the church of every age. Jesus spoke it to the apostles who were with him, and the Spirit's guidance "into all the truth" is what they received and wrote down. A promise made to them is not a promise to add to what they wrote (Revelation 22:18).
And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name.
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
The church baptizes believers by immersion and teaches the burial and resurrection that Paul pictures: "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4). That is the apostles' mode, and the church deserves credit for it. But it states baptism's purpose another way. It is how a person "initially" expresses commitment and enters the community, with the promise of salvation. It is not described as given "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), nor as the place where one is to "wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16), and the pages read for this chart never join forgiveness to the water. On the rubric's three questions the age of eight blurs "believers only" a little, the mode is right, and the purpose is a testimony of commitment. Those put the placement one step from the line, and the step is the purpose. A mode kept without the apostles' purpose leaves out the thing Peter named first, and the rubric already weighs the purpose most heavily of the three, so this chart does not count it a second time.
The pattern. Peter does not tell the crowd to commit and join. He tells them: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38). Jesus said: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Baptism stands where the sinner meets the forgiveness the cross bought.
Credit. The church teaches that salvation is "the loving gift of God's grace that becomes ours through faith and repentance," and it does not teach salvation by works. It will not baptize an infant, and it blesses children instead. Its present discernment over those baptized as infants elsewhere shows it still holds believer baptism as the norm, which is the nearer practice to Acts.
And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.
For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.
And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The church has the elements right. It serves bread and the fruit of the vine, as Jesus did: "Drink ye all of it" (Matthew 26:27) and "this fruit of the vine" (Matthew 26:29). It teaches the memorial Paul gives, and it asks for reconciliation before the meal. Its table is open to every believer, and on this site's reading an open table is not charged against a church, since Scripture does not shut the table to any believer who proves himself (1 Corinthians 11:28). The departure is in the day. The church at Troas came together "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and the church breaks bread monthly. That is the rubric's rung for a monthly or quarterly Supper. With the nature a memorial with a sense of presence and the access open, the placement is one step from the line, and the step is the day. It is a real departure, not a small one: a monthly table leaves most first days of the year without the Supper, and the apostolic example binds.
The day and the interval. The one verse that names a day, an assembly and the act together is Acts 20:7. No other day is named for a church to break bread. The church's answer, that the first Sunday of the month is the main focus of its Communion, keeps the day but drops the weekly interval, and there is no other example in the New Testament to set beside it.
The meaning. The church ties the Supper to the renewal of baptismal and confirmation covenants. Paul's account is that the Supper is a memorial and a proclamation: "ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The covenant renewal is an addition, though a gentle one.
The cup. Congregations serve grape juice, but the First Presidency's 2020 guidelines for sharing the sacraments when people cannot meet in person list "Bread and wine (such as unfermented grape juice, water, or other unfermented beverages)." Jesus named the cup's contents "this fruit of the vine" (Matthew 26:29), and water is not that.
Credit. The church has opened its table, serves the fruit of the vine in its ordinary practice, and asks its people to reconcile first.
And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church.
Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.
The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.
The New Testament pattern is a plurality of elders over each congregation: Paul and Barnabas "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Peter, "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1), tells the elders not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). Community of Christ sets a First Presidency over the church, apostles and a council that can alter or disorganize mission centers over the congregations, a pastor over each congregation, and eight ordained offices whose ordination confers authority. On the rubric that structure takes the next to last rung; in form it is short of the Latter-day Saints, because its top is a presidency and a world conference of delegates and not one man alone, and each congregation elects its own pastor every year. This chart moves it one step further, to the far end, because the office at the top binds doctrine of its own: "every prophet-president of our church has added new revelations" to its scripture, and once the conference accepts them they stand as canon over every congregation, as Section 156 did for the ordination of women. An elder is to be "holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching" (Titus 1:9), and the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).
The priesthood of all. Peter calls all believers "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). The church says the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all disciples, and it opens ordination widely. The distinctive weighed above, on women, takes this further.
The pastor. The church calls the pastor the congregation's presiding elder, and one pastor leads, sometimes with a co-pastor, counselors or a small team. That is one presiding elder, not the plurality of elders the apostles appointed in each church, and above the congregation stand mission center presidents, apostles and a presidency. The congregation's yearly election of its pastor is a real voice for the members, and it is to the church's credit.
speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.
What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
The Sunday gathering has much the first church had: scripture, a message, hymns, prayers, the offering, and the Supper. The congregation sings for itself, and the service is open to the gifts of the people, which fits "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26). Two things differ. The church's hymnal prints keyboard accompaniment for the singing, and Paul's picture is "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), with no instrument in it. The sacraments follow authorized prayers and a stated covenant form, a mandated liturgical form. The pages read for this chart show prayer offered to God, and none addressed to saints or to Mary. On the rubric the instrument is the contested step, the mandated forms sit mid-ladder, and prayer is on the line, so the placement is near the line, and this chart leaves it there.
What Scripture says about music. Every reference to music among Christians in the New Testament is vocal. The rubric marks the use of instruments as the one contested step, and the verdict here is on the text and does not treat the practice as heresy.
The weighing of prayer. The church's pages give the Lord's Prayer as the prayer Jesus taught, and they name invocations, benedictions and prayers of supplication without giving a text. The pages do not say whether prayer is offered to the Father through Christ alone. The placement here rests on no evidence of prayer to anyone but God, and the church's saved pages do not go further than that.
Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit: for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.
Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;
The church takes the Holy Spirit seriously. It confesses him as "Giver of Life, holy Wisdom, true God," it asks his blessing on the newly baptized, and it teaches its members to listen for him. Scripture ties the apostles' signs and the foundation of the church to the apostles themselves. The message was "confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders" (Hebrews 2:3-4), and the church stands on "the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20), laid once. When the church says the Spirit speaks to it today and adds the result to its scripture, it claims for the present what scripture gives to that foundation, and "whether there be tongues, they shall cease" (1 Corinthians 13:8). The church does not rest its case on tongues or miracles, which keeps this lighter than the placement of bodies that do, but its continuing revelation, written into the canon, is the heart of the claim.
Credit. The church's pages do not claim healing miracles or tongues as signs of the Spirit's presence, and its laying on of hands for the sick asks only that healing come "in whatever form it comes." The weighing falls on what is claimed in the Spirit's name, which is revelation for the church.
Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.
And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;
The church looks for the risen Christ, the resurrection and the judgment, and says he is "advocate and judge of the living and the dead." It also says plainly that it does not know the day, as Jesus said: "of that day and hour knoweth no one" (Matthew 24:36). Here it stands with the apostles. It says less than they do about the two ends. Jesus names "the resurrection of life" and "the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29) and "eternal punishment" and "eternal life" (Matthew 25:46), and the church's pages read for this chart speak of judgment as justice and mercy and of grace with no bounds, but do not say what becomes of those who refuse him. It also places the center of Zion at a city in Missouri, where John sees the new Jerusalem "coming down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2). The placement sits between the two, because the hope is near the apostles' and the silence and the center place are the departures.
Limits of the record. The church's pages read here do not give a view of the state of the dead between death and the resurrection, or of the end of those who reject the gospel, so the verdict weighs only what the pages state.
Community of Christ holds much that the New Testament holds. It confesses one God in three persons, Jesus Christ as fully human and fully divine, his death and resurrection, and his return. It baptizes believers by immersion and teaches the burial and new life of Romans 6. It teaches salvation as the gift of God's grace through faith and repentance. Its table is open to every believer, it serves bread and the fruit of the vine, and it asks its people to reconcile before they eat. It sings together, prays, reads scripture and lets its people take part. It cares for the poor and the stranger, and the whole church takes up peace as a mission. Its Basic Beliefs are offered "not as the last word," and the church admits its own hard history with candor.
The test falls hardest where the church is most distinct. It places two books and a prophet-president beside the Bible and calls the canon open, and the apostles said the faith was delivered once. It treats scripture as one lens of six and says it is not inerrant, so no text stands over the church. It states the purpose of baptism as commitment and not as the forgiveness of sins, and it keeps the Supper monthly where the first church kept it on the first day of every week. It sets a presidency, apostles and a council over the congregations, and it ordains women to offices Paul reserved to men. These verdicts rest on the text and not on the sincerity of the people, which is plain in their concern for peace and for the poor.
The way back is the one the church itself says it seeks, the faith "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), as the apostles left it.