What Latter-day Saints believe, and how they worship
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, teaches that Christ's original church was restored through a modern prophet; its members worship in local meetinghouses and hold sacred ordinances in temples.
Latter-day Saint meetinghouses near Elora
What Latter-day Saints believe
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (no longer called “Mormons”) believe that Christ’s church was lost after the apostles and restored through Joseph Smith, who organized it in 1830. Their first Article of Faith reads: “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost,” understood as three distinct beings, one in purpose. They accept the Bible “as far as it is translated correctly,” together with the Book of Mormon and other modern scripture, and hold that God still speaks through prophets. Through Christ’s atonement all will be resurrected, and all may be saved by faith, repentance, baptism and enduring to the end; families sealed in a temple can be together for eternity. Members abstain from alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, and tithe.
Worship: what a service is like
Sunday worship in a meetinghouse, a plain chapel, lasts two hours. The first hour is sacrament meeting: hymns, prayers, bread and water blessed and passed by young men holding the priesthood, and short talks by assigned members rather than a sermon. The second hour is Sunday School or classes for men, women and youth, all led by unpaid members. Temples, reserved for members in good standing, are where baptisms for the dead, endowments and eternal marriages take place; the nearest is in Brampton.
How Latter-day Saint meetinghouses are organized
Congregations are called wards, grouped into stakes. A ward is led by an unpaid bishop; above the stake presidents are the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency in Salt Lake City. Young adults often serve as missionaries. The church reports 17.9 million members worldwide; local members belong to wards such as Guelph’s.
Compared with Reformed churches
Both Latter-day Saints and Reformed Christians honour Jesus Christ as Saviour, prize the Bible, keep Sunday and take family life seriously. Latter-day Saints do not confess the Trinity as defined in the Nicene Creed; they teach that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings united in purpose, and that the Father has a body. For that reason Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches, Reformed churches among them, do not regard the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Christian church in the historic sense, and Latter-day Saints in turn regard those churches as having lost the authority of Christ’s original church. Latter-day Saints affirm that they are Christians of “the restored Church of Jesus Christ”; Reformed churches affirm the ecumenical creeds and the sufficiency of Scripture.