The Community of Christ
In the major denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, the role of the Presiding Patriarch diminished substantially after the death of Hyrum Smith. Today, the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, ordains a Presiding Evangelist who plays an important role as a world church leader, but it is not required that the person be a descendant of Joseph Smith's family. That tradition was discontinued in 1958 when RLDS Church President W. Wallace Smith, a grandson of Joseph Smith, Jr., presented Roy Cheville as a successor to Elbert A. Smith. Unlike Elbert A. Smith, Cheville was not a descendant of Joseph Smith, Sr.. Prior to 1984 Presiding Patriarch and Presiding Evangelist were used interchangeably for the one presiding over the Order of Evangelists. In 1984, the Community of Christ dropped the use the name Presiding Evangelist for this role, along with the change of name of the local office of Evangelist-Patriarch to simply Evangelist. The current Presiding Evangelist of the Community of Christ is David R. Brock.
Read more about this topic: Presiding Patriarch
Famous quotes containing the words community and/or christ:
“Every community is an association of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
—Bible: New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.