Evangelist (Latter Day Saints) - Community of Christ

Community of Christ

In the Community of Christ, which was formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an evangelist is an office in the Melchizedec Order of the priesthood. The evangelist was originally called an evangelist–patriarch. This name derived from Latter Day Saint founder Joseph Smith's statement that "“an Evangelist is a Patriarch. … Wherever the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a Patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints”.

An evangelist–patriarch's primary responsibility was to provide special blessings to members of the church; these blessings were considered one of the eight sacraments in the RLDS Church. The local Evangelist–Patriarchs of the church were governed by an individual with church-wide authority known as the Presiding Patriarch.

In 1984, when the first women began to be ordained to the office of evangelist–patriarch, the RLDS Church changed the title of the local Evangelist–Patriarchs to simply "evangelist". Similarly, it changed the title of the Presiding Patriarch to the "Presiding Evangelist". To be an evangelist, a person must already be a high priest of the Melchizedec Order of the priesthood.

The primary duty of an evangelist in the Community of Christ remains the giving of sacramental "evangelist's blessings"; it is for this reason that evangelists are often referred to as "ministers of blessing". Ideally, an evangelist is free from administrative responsibilities in the church in order to allow them to be fully responsive to the Holy Spirit. Their blessings—which are given by the laying on of hands—provide counsel and advice and confer spiritual blessings upon the recipient. Evangelist's blessings may or may not be recorded. If it is recorded, a copy is stored in the church archives at Independence, Missouri. A recipient may receive multiple evangelist's blessings in their life.

All evangelists belong to the Order of Evangelists, which is directed by the Presiding Evangelist (currently David R. Brock, since 2007).