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The Church of Christ is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement headquartered in Independence, Missouri on what is known as the Temple Lot. Members of the church have been known colloquially as Hedrickites, after Granville Hedrick (September 2, 1814 – August 22, 1879), who was ordained the first leader of the faction in July 1863. The Church no longer has any official dialogue with any other organization. Current church membership is about 5000 with members in several countries.
History
The church shares its early history with the larger Mormon or Latter Day Saint denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Community of Christ. After the death of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844, several leaders vied for control of movement and established rival organizations. By the 1860s, five early Mormon branches found themselves unaffiliated with any larger Latter Day Saint Group. Located in Bloomington, Crow Creek, Half Moon Prairie, and Eagle Creek, Illinois, and Vermillion, Indiana, these branches united under Hedrick's leadership in May 1863. (See also Succession crisis (Mormonism).)
The church currently occupies a property in Independence, Missouri considered by Latter Day Saints to be the "Temple Lot" designated by Joseph Smith Jr. to be the site for the temple of the New Jerusalem, a sacred city to be built preparatory to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Hedrickites returned to Independence in 1867 to purchase lots for the temple in the name of the "Church of Christ" and have been headquartered on this strategic sacred space ever since. In the 1930s, the church excavated the site in an attempt to build a temple on the location, but the effort was stalled because of the Great Depression, and the excavation was filled.
Since the 1920s, the church has splintered into at least four other factions, including the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message Established Anew in 1929, which separated in the 1950s and has since grown to about 12,000 members.
On January 1, 1990, a former member of the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) who had recently joined the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message set fire to the church building, claiming his actions were part of a political protest and a prophecy that "war is coming to America." The fire caused significant damage to the second story of the building, although the first floor containing church records and documents remained intact. On February 1, 1990, the remains of the building (originally built in 1905) were finally razed. Construction of a new headquarters building began in August 1990. Though he pled "not guilty" to the charges (on First Amendment grounds), the man was convicted by a jury of second-degree arson and breaking and entering on January 16, 1991.
Doctrines
Though the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) initially accepted the leadership and doctrines of the Latter-day Saint movement's founding prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., they changed their policy regarding which of his revelations they would accept in the 1920's. The church thereafter asserted that revelations recorded after the publication of the Book of Commandments in 1833 were not divinely inspired, claiming that Smith "fell" from his calling with such doctrines as plural marriage and the introduction of church hierarchial offices (including the office of High Priest (Mormonism) in 1831). For this reason, unlike other Latter Day Saint denominations, the church does not have a prophet or a First Presidency. Instead the church declares that it is headed directly by Jesus Christ through a Quorum of Twelve Apostles. The council responds officially through their secretary.
The Church's official "standards of faith" are the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Misc.
The missionary representative in the visitors center is William A. Sheldon (as of 2006).
External links
Mormonism | Christian denominations | Latter Day Saint denominations | Churches in the United States
"Church of Christ (Temple Lot)"