Those who worship with The Work of Jesus Christ in Centennial Park have to be prepared to preach on a moment’s notice.
During a priesthood meeting for male members of the church on June 21 the men were told to wear their “preaching clothes” to church the next day. And true to the announcement, church leaders called on random male members of the congregation the next day to come to the stand and deliver a message to the entire body at the Centennial Park church, located just across the highway and south of Colorado City.
Jonathan Dutson was among those to speak that Sunday. He says it’s common for church leaders to call on members of the congregation to speak because it reminds them that they must be ready at any time to explain their beliefs.
Those belonging to the Work of Jesus Christ believe they maintain the true Christian gospel as taught by Joseph Smith and as practiced in the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However they believe the mainstream LDS Church has deviated from the teachings of Smith, including the abandonment of plural marriage. Leaders in The Work of Jesus Christ - the priesthood council- say they have the true authority from God on earth.
Although they share a common origin with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist group based in Colorado City and Hildale, The Work of Jesus Christ and the group that became the FLDS parted ways in 1986.
While many outsiders may focus on the practice of polygamy, members of The Work say their beliefs all come down to legitimate authority from God. Like members of both the LDS Church and the FLDS Church, they do not believe that authority continued after the death of the apostles Christ called when he walked the earth. Instead they believe the authority was restored in the early 1800s to Joseph Smith, a man they all revere as a prophet.
Among the principles Smith taught was the doctrine of plural marriage as described in the Old Testament. The LDS Church officially abandoned that practice in the late 1800s, citing a revelation from then prophet Wilford Woodruff that God wanted the practice to cease. But members of some current polygamous groups - including The Work - say Woodruff’s predecessor John Taylor authorized a few men to carry on the practice of plural marriage underground, organizing them as a priesthood council in 1886.
When the mainstream church began excommunicating those who practiced plural marriage in the 1930s, the underground priesthood council and its followers broke away from the LDS Church and created a congregation of their own on the Utah/Arizona border in what was known as Short Creek.
In the priesthood council, the most senior member serves as president of the church, the man who holds the “keys” and authority from God to lead the church. The Work and the FLDS Church began to split in the late 1970s and early 1980s because of a difference on this subject.
The two groups were united under Leroy S. Johnson as leader of the priesthood council. But a rift formed in the council and Johnson asked two members of the council, J. Marion Hammon and Alma A. Timpson, to step down.
Following Johnson’s death in 1986, Rulon T. Jeffs assumed the prophetic leadership position of the FLDS Church, saying Johnson had taken the priesthood authority away from Hammon, the most senior member of the council. The group that became known as The Work believed that Hammon retained his authority so they chose to follow him and Timpson. They split from Jeffs’ followers and formed the community of Centennial Park in recognition of the 100 years since the formation of the priesthood council that enabled plural marriage to continue.
Although The Work split from the FLDS Church many years before Rulon T. Jeffs’ son Warren S. Jeffs assumed the leadership in 2002, most members of The Work have sought to distance themselves even further from the post-Johnson FLDS Church and the allegations of underage marriages and other criminal behavior.
Hammon and Timpson have both passed away but members of The Work believe they passed on their authority to a new priesthood council that currently leads the church. The names of these leaders are not publicly known.
Church services
With the recent attention given to polygamous groups that claim to practice Mormon fundamentalism, some might expect church services at one of these sects to be some sort of fantastical event led by a charismatic, law-defying prophet type. But the weekly services of The Work of Jesus Christ are not all that different from many other Christian religions.
As the members gather in the modest church building at the southern edge of Centennial Park they greet each other with warm “hellos” and handshakes. A 25-voice choir sings hymns common to the Christian world and those that share a history with the LDS Church. “Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning” and “Come Listen To A Prophet’s Voice” are among the selections they sing, accompanied by Marlyne Hammon, who also serves as the church’s spokeswoman, on the piano.
While members of The Work still dress modestly, most have more of a contemporary look than their neighbors across the highway in Colorado City. While some of the women pull their hair back in either buns or braids, many would not stand out in a crowd of women in the middle of St. George. And in recognition of the announcement made in the previous day’s priesthood meeting, the men and boys all wear dark suits.
Portraits of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and other church leaders hang on the walls. A U.S. flag stands on the podium. The words “Holiness to the Lord” are printed on the lectern.
The choir sings “Secret Prayer” and “Did You Think To Pray?” as the benches fill and families begin to sit in overflow seating in the adjoining cultural hall. A group of men, who are apparently priesthood leaders, sit at the front of the chapel on the podium.
The services begin with announcements about community game nights and water shortages before the entire congregation sings “I Stand All Amazed” as the opening song. A leader conducting the service asks another man from the congregation to offer an opening prayer. As the man begins to pray he raises his right arm to a square, asking for blessings on the priesthood council and a sister congregation in Salt Lake City.
Following the prayer the leader mentions the previous night’s announcement about wearing “preaching clothes” and begins to call men from the audience.
As one of the speakers, Dutson references his gratitude for worshipping at the feet of the priesthood leaders. He then mentions a quote he heard on ESPN radio that the biggest lie ever told was that the devil is not real.
“I hope and pray that we will not be caught in that lie,” Dutson says.
Nathan Burnham, the next speaker, follows Dutson’s remarks by mentioning that the devil is “constantly picking at us.” He says those who are parents need to step up and be responsible for they all will have to face in the afterlife the consequences of their actions in this life.
Later in the meeting an older member of the church, Walter Dixon, also talks of the devil, saying he uses science to battle religion. Dixon says that true science is a search for the truth.
Dixon also talks about how he first began to follow the priesthood council decades earlier while living in Salt Lake City. He says he was in darkness before discovering the light found in The Work of Jesus Christ.
“Nothing else is of any importance,” he says. “Priesthood is everything. Without it there is nothing of value to me.”
Following the meeting Burnham says he was born in Bountiful and raised in Hildale. He was a child at the time of the 1986 split between groups and has an older brother who remained a member of the FLDS Church. Despite their differing beliefs, Burnham says he is on friendly terms with family members in the FLDS Church.
“We all still have Thanksgiving dinner together,” he says. “We still love each other.”
He says his faith teaches him how to treat others and explains the purpose of life.
“The gospel explains to my mind where we came from, why we’re here on this earth and where we’re going,” he says. “My parents showed me by example how beautiful the gospel is.”
