Values

Who We Are

We are an international faith community present in more than 50 countries around the world and established in Canada since the 1830s. We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace. We are an LGBTQ affirming church that maintains fully inclusive policies recognizing the worth and dignity of all human beings regardless of gender or sexual identities.

Experiences in Community of Christ can be varied depending on where you find yourself in Canada. Styles of worship, programming, and theological views are influenced by the culture of the local areas, resulting in rich, unique experiences each and every time.

Opportunities to connect abound with worship services and other events across Canada, casual meetups in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, year-round camping and retreat programs at our six campgrounds, and interactive online ministries. Each of these connection opportunities provides support, spiritual growth, comfort, and retreat for members and friends alike.

Our Values

Gender Equality

Community of Christ has enjoyed gender equality worldwide since the 1984 World Conference (Doctrine & Covenants Section 156*), with women making up a considerable portion of all levels of the church’s leadership today. The church has been blessed by the significant contributions women have made to our movement - both before Section 156 and after. Women play an integral part in the mission and life of Community of Christ, providing indispensable perspective and ministry. To date, gender equality has been fully present in the lives of two generations of members, and we continue to benefit from Church President Wallace B. Smith’s careful guidance as well as the faithful discernment of the 1984 World Conference body’s decision.

*Scriptural reference: 156:9b: "I say to you now, as I have said in the past, that all are called according to the gifts which have been given them. This applies to priesthood as well as to any other aspects of the work. c. Therefore, do not wonder that some women of the church are being called to priesthood responsibilities. This is in harmony with my will and where these calls are made known to my servants, they may be processed according to administrative procedures and provisions of the law."

Queer/LGBTQ+ Inclusion

Community of Christ, in canonizing Doctrine & Covenants 164 as a World Conference body in 2010, established more culturally appropriate avenues to discuss certain topics on a country-by-country basis. With this new opportunity, Community of Christ members across Canada voted as a body in 2012 to become an affirming and welcoming church within its borders after several years of discernment and a significant investment of resources in intentional dialogue.

Community of Christ in Canada maintains fully inclusive policies recognizing the worth, dignity, and giftedness that all human beings, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, bring to God’s world and the life and mission of the church. In Canada, members of the priesthood are welcome to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies, upholding the sacrament of marriage as being freely given from God. Members of the Queer/LGBTQ+ Community enjoy full participation in the life of the church in Canada.

A full list of nations in which Community of Christ currently enforces fully affirming and welcoming policies, along with their respective dates of policy change, includes:

Australia - 2013 (ordination) / 2018 (marriage)
British Isles - 2014
Canada - 2013
Germany - 2019
The Netherlands - 2017
Norway - 2017
United States - 2014

Statement of Inclusion

Community of Christ in Canada welcomes and celebrates people of every race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical and mental ability, national origin, ethnic background, economic status, and political ideology to full participation in the life of the church.

“Full participation in the life of the church” pertains to all members, without exception, ensuring each person is fully eligible to participate in the sacraments, priesthood, all levels of church leadership, as well as any other benefits and responsibilities guaranteed to church membership according to the Membership Manual.

Any individual member’s “full participation in the life of the church” does not bind any other individual member’s conscience on an issue about which they may differ, but rather requires honest commitment to life together in community, regardless of opinion. For everyone born, a place at the table.

It is in the spirit of transparency that we include not only the essence of the policy details above, but also the lived experience with Queer/LGBTQ+ individuals across the church in Canada. We are a people of diverse ideologies, backgrounds, and lived experiences. While this statement captures the essence of the national policy established by a vote of all congregations across Canada in 2012, there are a variety of opinions on the matter from coast to coast. We continue to learn and grow as a community, becoming a more welcoming, accepting, and educated faith tradition together.

Scriptural reference: 165:3d: “Be not consumed with concern about variety in human types and characteristics as you see them. Be passionately concerned about forming inclusive communities of love, oneness, and equality that reveal divine nature.”

How We Are Organized

Embracing and celebrating such diverse lived experiences can sometimes bring disagreement. Common consent guides our path forward together as a community, empowering us to work through difficult topics while avoiding a simple majority vote, potentially causing division. Instead, the common consent process provides time, space, and opportunities to connect with others who might hold differing opinions. Elements of the common consent process include: sharing of perspectives, spiritual practices, prayerful reflection, surveys, and a formal vote. Ultimately, a minimum of 80% of the body must be in agreement prior to moving forward with a formal vote. If this minimum is not met, the body returns to dialogue to gain more perspective on the topic being discussed. Our Enduring Principle of Unity in Diversity means that “we seek agreement or common consent in important matters. If we cannot achieve agreement, we commit to ongoing dialogue and lovingly uphold our common faith in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church.”

Interfaith Outlook

As a worldwide faith community, we are blessed with a diverse membership that brings with them distinct languages, ideologies, and cultures. Through this unique lens, we view other faith traditions with love, respect, and admiration as we seek to learn and grow together.

Community of Christ claims no exclusive monopoly on truth. We believe that we have a special, divine calling, mission, and path. If you feel a similar calling, we invite you to share the path with us. At the same time, we recognize that there are many different paths that promote peace and justice throughout the world. For this reason, Community of Christ has a longstanding tradition of participation in ecumenical groups (sharing between Christian denominations) and interfaith groups (connecting the world’s diverse faith traditions).

The Encounter World Religions Centre

One of the ways we have sought to promote peace is by breaking down barriers between neighbours that exist due to bias and misunderstanding. Community of Christ in Canada founded and supports the Encounter World Religions Centre (EWRC) in order to promote this kind of religious literacy. Each year participants in the EWRC’s “Discovery Week” are taught about the history, beliefs, and practices of the world’s diverse religious traditions and then they go to their individual places of worship and meet their practitioners.

International Outlook

Community of Christ is established in 46 countries and has a presence in many more. Our International Headquarters is in Independence, Missouri, in the United States. The church has been established in Canada since 1833.

World Accord

World Accord brings people together. It tells the stories of hard-working poor people in different places around the world, and provides a way for Canadians to engage with them by supporting grassroots, community-based projects to improve their (and our) well-being.

Peace and Justice

Tasked with building a just and peaceful society (Zion), Community of Christ has a longstanding history of advocating for peace and justice in the world. This focus is foundational to who we are.

Community of Christ’s motto is “Peace” and the pursuit of peace is numbered both among our five Mission Initiatives and our nine Enduring Principles. The church’s historic seal of a lion lying down with a lamb, led by a child, illustrates the Peaceable Commonwealth envisioned by the prophet Isaiah (11:6): “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”

Community of Christ was founded with the hope of building a just and peaceful society, which members called “Zion” — from the Biblical vision of a New Jerusalem. In past generations, Community of Christ members founded communitarian colonies as experiments to realize this vision. More recently, we have sought to build Zion in our own neighborhoods by working to found and support local institutions that strengthen the social safety net.

Peaceable Commonwealth ("Kingdom of God")

From the beginning, Jesus and early members of his movement advocated building on earth a just and peaceable society, where the “last shall be first” (Matthew 20:16). Not only would the poor be included in the community, they were to be its heart: Jesus taught “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Our church’s first members in the 19th century largely came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Following the model of the ancient Christian community described in the New Testament, they hoped to create a church and society where “there was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds” (Acts 4:34). In Community of Christ, the commitment to building up the “kingdom of God” — the Peaceable Commonwealth on Earth — remains the very core of our movement.

Zion

“Abolish poverty, end suffering” is our stated Mission Initiative in Community of Christ. We have traditionally called this vision and cause “Zion”: the pursuit of peace on Earth. (In Community of Christ, our use of the term “Zion” predates and is unrelated to the “Zionist” movement.) Although we may never experience a fully peaceable society in our lifetimes, we can experience little tastes of Zion when we fight inequities that exist in our communities. Thus when we helped house refugees from Latin America in Toronto, members called the housing project “Sionito” (Spanish for “a little Zion”). And when members built a retreat center to hold spiritual reunions in Ontario, they named the grounds “Ziontario”.

Sionito and Zerin Social Housing

As part of our commitment to abolishing poverty and building up the peaceable commonwealth on Earth, Community of Christ members have founded and continue to support social housing projects in the cities of Toronto and London, Ontario. The Zerin group operates a social housing project for seniors in London and is currently building a project in that city, while Sionito operates three projects in Toronto and is embarking on a fourth. Although Community of Christ is a relatively small church, through institutions like Sionito and Zerin, our members are able to have an outsized impact on their communities.

The Spiritual Millennium

Many of the earliest Community of Christ members believed in a literal “Millennium”: that end of history was near at hand and that God would establish a 1,000-year reign on earth after a literal apocalypse. But Jesus also taught in Luke (17:20) that “the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” With that understanding, few members of Community of Christ today are waiting for the world to end literally. Instead, we feel the call to build up Zion: the peaceable Commonwealth of God here on earth in our own neighbourhoods.

Continuing Revelation and Scripture

Scripture provides divine guidance and inspired insight for life when responsibly interpreted and faithfully applied.

There are three holy scriptures in our faith tradition:

Bible
Doctrine & Covenants
Book of Mormon

Each book represents elements of our past, present, and future. With other Christians, 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 as scripture. We do not use these sacred writings to replace the witness of the Bible or improve upon it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God (Preface of the Book of Mormon; Doctrine and Covenants 76:3g). We have heard Christ speak in all three books of scripture, and bear witness that he is “alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1:18).

For our time we shall seek 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. Read our Statement on Scripture for more information.

Education

Historically, Community of Christ has maintained a major focus on educational development for its members. This tradition continues today at all levels of the church as we seek to continually learn and grow together in community.

Education has long-been an area of significant importance in Community of Christ. Born out of the Second Great Awakening in Upstate New York, the church embraced a lay ministry structure early on that gave opportunities to those who were not formally trained as ministers to provide relevant, meaningful ministry. In turn, the church provided regular teaching materials, courses, and continuing education to everyday people seeking to improve their ability to share God’s love.

Graceland University was later founded by Community of Christ in 1895 in Lamoni, Iowa. At the time, Lamoni served as the church’s headquarters. Members of the church had founded Lamoni just 25 years prior in 1870 as a Zionic community. In 1917, Graceland received accreditation from the states of Iowa and Missouri and from the Higher Learning Commission, making it the first fully accredited junior college in Iowa.

Today, Community of Christ offers continuing education opportunities through several programs. First, Temple School courses are offered online and in person to provide members with relevant information on topics such as inclusion, bible scholarship, church history, and more. These courses are typically self-paced and occur over the span of a few weeks to a few months. Course credit is recorded with the Office of Education.

Next, the church offers the MEADS (Ministerial Education and Discipleship Studies) program as a more in-depth learning opportunity. Held face-to-face, these week-long programs match learners with skilled instructors in an intimate setting. Readings are assigned prior to the course, homework is assigned in the evenings, and meaningful discussion ensues. Course credit is recorded with the Office of Education.

Lastly, Community of Christ partners with Graceland University to offer a two-year, accredited Master of Arts in Religion program. This program is offered in a hybrid format, with courses taught both online and in-person at twice-yearly ‘Focus Sessions’ at the Community of Christ Temple in Independence, Missouri, USA. Click here for more information.

Camping Tradition

Camping in Community of Christ is built right into the DNA of our faith tradition. Retreating to nature as a community helps us to be present with one another in sacred spaces and fosters deeper and stronger connections.

Camping has historically been an important part of our faith tradition. From the early days of revivals in the American frontier to today, Community of Christ offers spiritual camps and retreats for all ages - including families. Each summer, members and friends of Community of Christ across Canada gather at our six campgrounds for Junior Camp, Youth Camp, and Family Camp (also referred to as Reunion). Other retreats are offered throughout the year, such as the Nurturing Spirit Retreats, Connection Retreats, Men's Retreat, Women's Retreats, Youth Retreats, and Young Adult Retreats. Visit our campground pages for more details on upcoming events.

Mission in Action

Community of Christ's five mission initiatives are more than just a policy statement – they are a constant inspiration for members to work towards a better world in the here and now.

Learn More

WHO WE ARE