Welcome to the “late” second edition of “Historians Corner.” I was travelling home from the Community of Christ World Conference in Independence, MO, last week. My apologies for the delay.

I have asked current congregation Historians to consider sending me anecdotes from the histories of their congregations for publication in this space. The Ribstone Congregation is celebrating their 115th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion they are publishing historical information about the congregation in their monthly newsletter. How convenient for me and you! The page that follows has been copied directly from the January issue of their newsletter to ensure the photos are also included. My thanks to Leila Goheen, Historian, and Darleene Skinner, Pastor, for their permission to use this material.

Do you have a documented historical anecdote about your congregation to share? Please send it to me at: steve@communityofchrist.ca  Thank you!

Written by Stephen Thompson
Canada West Mission Centre Historian
steve@communityofchrist.ca

​Historians Corner
Vol. 1 | No. 1
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Welcome to the first edition of “Historians Corner.” The intention of this once-a-month column (maybe twice-a-month once we get started) is to highlight brief nuggets from the history of Community of Christ and especially from the church in Western Canada. These “brief nuggets” will be just that - brief. Perhaps frustratingly brief from both a writer’s and a reader’s perspective. There is simply not enough space here in the Weekly Wire for a lot of detail. But there are many places to find details about church history and we will try to refer you to those resources when possible if you wish to know “the rest of the story” (as broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say).

For this first instalment, we are going to go back to the very early days of the church. The organizational meeting for the church was held on April 6, 1830, - one hundred and ninety-three years ago this month. (Yes - our bi-centennial is fast approaching!) The formal organization of the church was the culmination of a series of events over the previous five to ten years; we will not attempt to summarize those events here.

The meeting was held “in the Smith log cabin in Manchester Township, Ontario County”1 in western New York state. No minutes of the meeting were made. Accounts of the actions taken at the meeting were written some time later. We know the six people who attended were: Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Samuel H. Smith, Joseph Smith, Sr., and Joseph Knight, Sr.1 The Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., addressed the other five men in the spirit of revelation as recorded in section 21 of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. As originally organized, the church was known as the “Church of Christ.” It did not become the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” until 1838.1 Subsequent name changes were to “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” in 1860 and to “Community of Christ” in 2001.