List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement

This is a list of sects which form a part of the Latter Day Saint movement, a religious movement sometimes collectively referred to as "Restorationism". All follow at least some of the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith, Jr., original publisher of the Book of Mormon and founder of the Church of Christ in 1830. Though several small factions broke with Smith's organization during his lifetime, he retained the allegiance of the vast majority of Latter Day Saints until his murder in June of 1844.

Following Smith's demise, his movement experienced a profound leadership crisis which led to a schism within his church. The largest group followed Brigham Young, settling in what became the Utah Territory and calling themselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The second-largest group of adherents ultimately coalesced around Joseph Smith III, son of Joseph Smith, Jr. and formed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now headquartered in Independence, Missouri. Others seeking leadership of the movement included Smith's "First Counselor" Sidney Rigdon, the newly-baptized James Strang from Wisconsin, and Alpheus Cutler, a member of the Council of Fifty. Each of these still retains a following today--however small it may currently be in some cases--and all of their organizations have experienced further schisms of their own. Other claimnants such as Granville Hedrick, William Bickerton and Charles B. Thompson, among others, later emerged to lead still other factions, some of which have further subdivided in turn.

The term "Mormonism" is often used as a collective description of the Latter Day Saint movement, especially of its most notable church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, many other Latter Day Saint sects are opposed to this term, as they consider it to be derogatory and connected to the polygamy once practiced by the Utah church.^[1] These other groups tend to prefer the terms "Restorationist" or "Latter Day Saint" to describe themselves.

Categorizing the sects

Given the large number of Latter Day Saint sects and their differing backgrounds, categorizing them can sometimes be difficult. One approach is to utilize the term Rocky Mountain Saints for those denominations headquartered in the American West, while Prairie Saints may be used to describe those sects that formed in and around Nauvoo, Illinois; Voree, Wisconsin; Independence and other locations in the Midwest and east.

Another method uses provenance: for instance, all sects that ultimately trace their history back to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah might be organized as one "factional group", since the LDS church in Utah is directly connected historically to Joseph Smith's organization, of which it claims to be the sole legitimate continuation. Steven L. Shields, author of Divergent Paths of the Restoration--a reference work on this subject--follows this basic approach.^[2] Terms such as "Josephite" or "Brighamite", used by some Latter Day Saints as a moniker for the Community of Christ and Utah LDS churches respectively, are sometimes also used to distinguish groups of sects sharing a common ancestry and basic beliefs from others sharing a different provenance, with no offense intended by their use (as has been the case sometimes in the past, when these terms were often used in a pejorative sense).

In categorizing the Restorationist sects for this article, the following divisions and subdivisions have been employed:

• Before the Schism: Those churches which broke away from Joseph Smith's organization during Smith's lifetime.

• Prairie Saint groups:
  • Josephite factional group - The Community of Christ church, and those sects which trace their origin to it;
  • Hedrickite factional group - The Church of Christ (Temple Lot), and those sects which trace their origin to it;
  • Rigdonite factional group - The Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion, and those sects which trace their origin to it;
  • Cutlerite factional group - The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), and those sects which trace their origin to it;
  • Strangite factional group - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), and those sects which trace their origin to it;
  • Whitmerite factional group - The Church of Christ (Whitmerite), and those sects which trace their origin to it; and
  • Other Prairie Saints factional group - Those Prairie Saint sects not belonging to any of the above-listed factional groups.

• Rocky Mountain Saint groups:
  • Brighamite factional group - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those sects which trace their origin to it; and
  • Polygamist factional group - Fundamentalist polygamists who broke from the LDS church (or from sects which broke from it); listed separately because there are enough to require a category of their own.

Within each factional group, the original sect in that group (LDS for the "Brighamite" group, etc.) is listed first, except for the "Other Prairie Saints" and the "Polygamist" factional groups. The former has no "original church" outside of Joseph Smith's original organization, while sects in the latter group all ultimately trace their origins to the LDS church in Utah and are thus actually a part of the "Brighamite" factional group, being listed separately for convenience.

Before the schism

Prairie Saint groups

Rocky Mountain Saint groups

Denominational Tree

The main branches of the Latter Day Saint movement

William Bickerton: The Church of Jesus Christ

Sidney Rigdon: "Rigdonites"

Granville Hedrick: Church of Christ (Temple Lot)

Joseph Smith III: Community of Christ

James Strang:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Brigham Young

Fundamentalist Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Joseph Smith

References