The Mormon Church is a cultural and religious group that was established by Joseph Smith Jr. in the 1920s in upstate New York. It is the main branch of the so-called Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity. Instead of the Bible, they use the sacred texts of the Book of Mormon, which they believe contains the sayings of ancient prophets who lived in the Americas around 2200 BC. In this article, we will tell the story of this religious group, some interesting facts.
Legend of Origin
The Mormon Church came into existence thanks to its chief preacher, Joseph Smith Jr. He claimed that when he was 14 years old, an angel named Moroni came to him and told him about ancient manuscripts that were kept nearby. Allegedly, they were engraved on gold sheets by ancientprophets.
These writings contain the story of the people God brought to the Western Hemisphere from Jerusalem long before the birth of Jesus Christ. According to the tradition on which the Mormon Church is based, Moroni was the last of these prophets, he hid the book that God promised to reveal only in the last days.
Smith claimed that the very next day he found this mysterious place by divine inspiration. That's where those sheets were buried. Moroni commanded Smith to come to the site every year for four years to receive instruction. Finally, he was allowed to take the sheets, which he translated into English.
After Smith's death in 1844, the Mormons followed their new leader, Brigham Young. As a result, they settled in the area of present-day Utah.
Peculiarities of the Mormon way of life
To understand what the Mormon Church is, you need to know some of the features and rules in accordance with which representatives of this religion live.
Traditionally they have large families. If at the very beginning there were an average of about seven children per couple, then by the middle of the 19th century this figure had grown to 8.2 children per family.
Initially, Mormons practiced plural marriage, but later abandoned this tradition. Now polygamy is found only among orthodox fundamentalists. The official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints denounces this practice.
Supporters of the Mormon Church participate in all government affairs, pledging to beexclusively law-abiding citizens. For them, the observance of the principle of freedom of religion and conscience is of great importance.
Sacraments and rituals
Their creed includes five major sacraments. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, baptism at the age of 8, communion with water and bread, ordination to the ranks of the priesthood, temple sacraments. There are two types of marriage according to Mormons - secular (for worldly life) and spiritual (for life in heaven).
According to tradition, they always have family evenings on Mondays. Once a week evenings for youth, they are attended by boys and girls aged 12 to 18 years. The basis of such evenings is charity work, social work, lessons, sports games and dances. Relief Society evening is held once a month. That's what the Mormon Church is.
Current situation
Currently, most Mormons identify themselves as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Non-practicing and independent Mormons can also be found. Their immediate center of cultural influence is located in the state of Utah, where they came back in 1844, after the death of Smith.
When defining the Mormon Church, it must be taken into account that all its followers adhere to strict rules. They follow a code that requires them to lead a he althy lifestyle. Mormons abstain from any alcohol, tea, tobacco, coffee, addictive substances or foods.
Their core values are family oriented, keeping closeconnections between distant and close relatives, between different generations of the same family. They strictly follow a chaste law requiring fidelity to their partner.
Considering themselves to be Christians, they do not belong to any of the major currents. At the same time, they have similar cultural, moral and family values with most of them. Some of their beliefs are fundamentally different from the mainstream Christian movements.
Own views
Mormons have their own take on cosmology. For example, they are convinced that all people are spiritual children of God. To return to it, they need to follow the example of Jesus Christ by accepting his redemption through the ordinance of baptism.
Mormons believe that the church of Christ was restored through Joseph Smith and is now led by living apostles and prophets. Central to their religion is the fact that God necessarily speaks to his children, answering prayers that are addressed to him.
God, according to Mormons, cares about every person. Each time one makes the right choice, one can improve.
Due to high birth rates and active missionary work within the community over the past few decades, their numbers have increased significantly. If in 1971 there were about three million Mormons worldwide, then in 2017 it approached the mark of 16 million people.
Headquarters
It is known about this religion thatit has its own Mormon church headquarters. This is an office and administrative building in the form of a skyscraper. It was built in 1972 in S alt Lake City. The Mormon Church is headquartered in Utah.
It is from this place that church leaders control its activities in 160 countries of the world. Across the planet, leadership is decentralized through regional, local, and national leadership from unpaid clergy.
The headquarters of the Mormon Church is Temple Square, which is considered one of the main attractions of the entire state of Utah. It attracts millions of visitors every year. The square consists of the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a temple, two visitor centers, and an Assembly building.
Buildings around Temple Square
To the east of the square is the Church's headquarters, as well as the Joseph Smith Memorial, the church's administrative building, and the Relief Society building. All these premises are necessarily used as offices by various departments.
West of Temple Square is the Family History Library. It is the world's largest facility for all kinds of genealogical research, as well as a museum of church art and history.
In the north is the famous conference hall. This is the world's largest auditorium, which can accommodate 21,000 people. This building is used for broadcasting the semi-annual General Conference. It hosts broadcasts for individualgroups of certain church members located in different parts of the planet. Recently, it has become a popular and sought-after venue for various kinds of performances and music concerts.
Granite Mountain Document Storage
There are many mysteries, riddles and legends about Mormons. For example, many people are fascinated by the story of the Mormon church records depository located in Granite Mountain, Utah. It's a mile and a half of hard rock.
An archive that belongs to the Mormons is stored here. It is located in well-protected underground rooms at a depth of about 180 meters. The vault was built in 1965 at the northern end of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
It is known that there is a room for long-term storage of archival documents enclosed in microfilms, many rooms for receiving and delivering documents, administrative premises, a special laboratory for the restoration and processing of microfilms.
Favorable conditions for storing documents are created by special climate control. The building is under the protection of armed guards. The entrance has 14-ton doors that can withstand a nuclear explosion.
It contains all the genealogical information on one million microfiches and nearly two and a half million microfilm rolls. In total, this is about three billion pages of genealogical records. These documents were collected by Mormons from libraries, archives, and churches in more than a hundred countries around the world. The storage is currently growing,increasing by approximately 40,000 microfilm rolls a year.
In 1999, the Mormons began to digitize this information, which is published in the public domain.
There is another vault located three kilometers further down the canyon.
Mormons in Russia
Does this religious organization also exist on the territory of the Russian Federation? The first Mormons in our country appeared in 1843, when the first two preachers arrived. However, they were soon withdrawn due to Smith's death.
In 1895, the family of Johan Lindelof was baptized in St. Petersburg as a Mormon from Sweden.
The modern history of this religious organization begins in 1989, when an employee of the American embassy received the authority to hold meetings of members of this organization in his apartment. In January 1990, the first missionaries arrived in Leningrad. They organized a parish in Vyborg. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially registered in late spring 1991.
Today, Moscow is the center of the Eastern Europe region, which includes most of the countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as Bulgaria and Turkey.
The most famous Mormon church in Moscow is located at 14 Sredny Ovchinnikovsky lane. Various services and meetings with like-minded people are regularly held here.
Numbers
Mormons themselves claim that their number around the world is almost 16 million people. About six million live in the US. Here is the mostlarge diaspora.
In the Russian Federation, according to church statistics, there are about 23 thousand Mormons.
Mormons conduct missionary activities in approximately 170 countries around the world. Their main book of Mormon has been translated into 93 languages, including Russian. There are 156 Mormon temples in the world. The closest religious buildings to Moscow are in Helsinki and Kyiv.
Different from the Christian Church
The main difference between Mormons is that they believe that God and Jesus Christ have physical bodies similar to human ones. But the Holy Spirit for them is an exclusively spiritual person without a physical body.
They consider the Bible not the only Holy Scripture given to humanity by God. They are convinced that God spoke through his prophets to people at different times and in different places.
After the ascension of Jesus Christ, according to the Mormons, the truth was lost, and the teachings of God's son were distorted. It was only restored through their prophet Joseph Smith.
