NEW NAME FOR RLDS CHURCH

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) has adopted a new name: “Community of Christ.”

RLDS delegates met in April at the church's world conference in Independence, Mo., to discuss a name change for the denomination. While “The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” will remain the denomination's legal name, the new name by which they will be identified, Community of Christ, will be instituted after the end of the year. The two-thirds majority vote needed to approve the change was easily surpassed; 1,979 (77%) voted for and 561 voted against.

Among the issues discussed was the church's problem with frequently being mistaken for the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mark A. Scherer, world church historian, told the Kansas City Star: “Primary to the existence of the reorganization was the desire to distance the church from the Utah Mormons for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the Utah Mormons were practicing polygamy, which the reorganized church membership felt was heresy.”

The RLDS church is only one of more than 100 groups that splintered from the church founded by Joseph Smith Jr. after his death in 1844. While Brigham Young led the majority of Smith's followers to Utah, others believed that a descendant of Smith should head the church as prophet. In 1860, Smith's son Joseph Smith III, was accepted and installed as president of the church. During the rest of the 19th century, the sect moved its headquarters around Illinois. In the early 1900s, the church established its formal headquarters in Independence.

The RLDS denomination has a membership of less than 250,000 and is the second-largest of the Mormon sects. The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints counts more than 10 million members.

—AMG

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