| Kirtland Temple |
Article Index for Kirtland |
Website Links For Kirtland |
Information AboutKirtland Temple |
|
PRESENT DAY Today people from around the world come to visit this first house of worship of the Latter Day Saint Movement. Some come out of historical curiousity, some for religious reasons, and others come for a mixture of reasons and curiousities. People are free to wander and sit in the Temple's gardens. Tours are conducted of this sacred space daily through the spring, summer, and fall, and on weekends during the winter. With the increase in costs required to preserve this place of worship from time and the ever increasing number of visitors each year a small preservation fee has been imposed on those wishing to take tours, so that the Temple may survive long into the future. Each year there is an ecumenical Christmas Eve service and a community Thanksgiving service held at the temple open to all. Along with these two services other events, such as hymn fests, are occasionally held. Some of these events require free tickets as there is a 300 person capacity limit to the Temple. Various Latter Day Saint movements make arrangments to hold services in the temple. Each year there are around 40 services scheduled. Community of Christ is currently building the Kirtland Temple Spiritual Formation and Visiters Center. This new structure will provide facilities adequate to handle the increasing number of visitors, educational needs, spiritual formation, and various ministries of the Temple. Facilities planned within this new structure include: a museum, museum store, multi-purpose theatre, class rooms, a chapel and offices. CONSTRUCTION Beginning in 1831 , members of the Church Of Christ , under the direction of church founder and president Joseph Smith Jr. , began to gather in the Kirtland area. On May 6 , 1833 , Smith reported that he had received a revelation from God, directing members of the church to construct "a house... wholly dedicated unto the Lord for the work of the presidency," "dedicated unto the Lord from the foundation thereof, according to the order of the priesthood." Directions were given to build a "lower court and a higher court," and a promise given that the Lord's "glory shall be there, and Construction commenced soon thereafter, quarrying sandstone and gathering lumber from the surrounding area. The first structure of its kind to be built by the Latter Day Saint Movement , the Kirtland Temple is very different in purpose than the Nauvoo temple built in the 1840s. It is different in both design and purpose of the temples built by the Latter-day Saint portion of the movement in latter years as they embraced and grew from Nauvoo temple theology. The lower inner court is used primarily for various worship services. It has two sets of pulpits, one set on either end, and the pews featured an adjustable design which allowed the audience to face either end. The second floor was designed for education, and was to house a school for church leaders known as the School Of The Apostles . Use of the third floor alternated use between general academic classes during the day, Church quorum meetings in the evenings, the Kirtland Theological Instatution, the School of the Elders (possibly an enlargment of the school of the prophets, and may have been destined to become the school of the apostles), Church offices, including that of Smith, were also located on the third floor. At the time of construction, none of the ordinances associated with LDS temple worship, such as Baptism By Proxy , had been instituted by at the time. Truman O. Angell recorded in his journal that about this time Frederick G. Williams , one of President Smith's counselors, came into the temple one day during construction and related the following: "Joseph received the word of the Lord for him to take his two counselors, Frederick G. Williams and Sidney Rigdon , and come before the Lord and He would show them the plan or model of the house to be built. We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the building appeared within viewing distance. I being the first to discover it. Then all of us viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us, and the makeup of this hall seemed to coincide with what I there saw to a minutia." DEDICATION The temple was dedicated in an eight-hour service on March 27 , 1836 . A reported "one thousand persons" attended the gathering, which introduced such traditional dedication rites as the hosanna shout and singing of the hymn "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning." Following a two-and-a-half hour sermon given by Church leader Sidney Rigdon , Smith offered a dedicatory prayer that had been prepared by a committee of church leaders, which he indicated was "given to him by revelation." Two other church leaders, Brigham Young and David W. Patten , were reported to have been inspired to Speak In Tongues following the prayer. [http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/109 Truman O. Angell recorded in his journal the following account: "When about midway during the prayer, there was a glorious sensation passed through the house Temple ; and we, having our heads bowed in prayer, felt a sensation very elevating to the soul. At the close of the prayer, F. G. Williams being in the upper east stand- -Joseph being in the speaking stand next below--rose and testified that midway during the prayer an holy angel came and seated himself in the stand. When the afternoon meeting assembled, Joseph, feeling very much elated, arose the first thing and said the personage who had appeared in the morning was the Angel Peter come to accept the dedication." VISIONS AND MIRACLES On January 21 , 1836, Smith reported the first of several visions received at the temple. As he administered a limited form of the endowment ceremony, he claimed to behold "the Celestial Kingdom of God, and the glory thereof... Not long after the dedication, several more visions were reported. On April 3 , Smith had his scribe, Warren Cowdery , write down in his personal journal an account of a personal spiritual experince Smith and Oliver Cowdery had while praying in the pulpits. In this experince Joseph states that he and Oliver saw Jesus Christ "standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit." According to Smith's account, Christ accepted the Church's dedication of the temple, and promised blessings according to their obedience. Following the conclusion of this vision of Christ, the account goes on to tell of Smith and Cowdery then receiving visions of Moses , Elias and Elijah . The account in Joseph Smith's Journal is the only known telling of this occurrence during Smith's lifetime. The LDS Church cannonized it as section 110 of their Doctrine and Convinents in 1876. SHIFTING OWNERSHIP Smith's time in Kirtland after the temple came into use was limited. In 1837, he became involved with the foundation of a bank known as the Kirtland Safety Society . The failure of this bank was a factor that caused a schism among Latter Day Saints in Kirtland. The dissenters were led by Warren Parrish , Smith's former secretary, and included Martin Harris , one of the Three Witnesses of the Book Of Mormon . Parrish's group took control of the temple and other church property. By the beginning of 1838, Smith was forced to flee the state, relocating to Far West, Missouri with hundreds of loyalists. Parrish's group dissolved and by 1841 the remaining Latter Day Saints in Kirtland had come back into communion with the main body of the church, which had subsequently relocated to Nauvoo, Illinois . A period of confusion followed the assassination of Smith in 1844 as rival leaders and factions vied for control of the temple. In 1845, the Kirtland Latter Day Saints under the leadership of S. B. Stoddard, Leonard Rich and Jacob Bump organized their own Mormon church in opposition to Brigham Young , James J. Strang and other leaders. This group later merged with a faction led by William E. McLellin whose president was David Whitmer , another of the Three Witnesses . By 1848, another Latter Day Saint faction led by James Collin Brewster was organized in Kirtland and maintained control of the temple. This faction also dissolved and most of the members who were in Kirtland eventually joined the Reorganized Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints (or RLDS Church), led by Joseph Smith III . In 1880, the RLDS Church took part in the Kirtland Temple Suit in an attempt to gain clear title to the temple. The court opinion stated that the Community of Christ was the lawful successor of the original church, but ultimately dismissed the case. Therefore, the case had no legal bearing. Ownership of the temple, however, was secured via Adverse Possession by 1901 or earlier. Since 1874, the RLDS Church, now known as Community of Christ, has maintained the temple, which is open to visitors. The local Community of Christ congregation met in the building on a regular basis for Sunday worship till the 1950s. Due to preservation concerns, a new church was built across the street (for the congregation) and the temple saw more direct management and funding from the world church. Today, the building is used for approximately 40 worship services or special events through out the year by various Latter Day Saint denominations. REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|