The Founding of the Church

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

​Historians Corner
Vol. 1 | No. 1
​
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.

1. Mark A. Scherer, The Journey of a People, Vol. 1: The Era of Restoration, 1820 to 1844, Community of Christ Seminary Press, Independence, Missouri: 2013. See Chapter 7, beginning at page 121, and especially pages 124 to 131.