by The Community of Christ Church in Independence, Missouri came on our radar because of the unique architecture of its temple. It is truly a site to behold, and stands out against the skyline around town. It serves at the headquarters of the Community of Christ Church (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).
The temple was completed in 1994, and was built in response to a revelation by church president Wallace B. Smith at the Community of Christ 1984 World Conference. However, the site itself had been chosen back in 1831 by Joseph Smith (the great-grandfather of Wallace and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement), but the church had been driven from the area before the temple could be built.
The temple design is a nod to a spiral nautilus shell, which “is found throughout nature and in human cultures throughout history. The spiral represents the inward and outward journeys of discipleship.” (per the tour info)
The sanctuary can seat 1,600, and features a Casavant pipe organ with nearly 5,700 pipes (one of the largest in the world). Also in the temple is a meditation room, church archives, administrative offices, theaters, and a small museum. There’s a labyrinth on the roof, but it was absolutely pouring while we were there, so we ran up and looked at it before running away again.
The temple is open to the public for tours and services. We were surprised by this, having had previous experience with the Mormon church in which non-members could not enter the religious buildings. It turns out that though this church traces its origins back to Joseph Smith, the more commonly known denomination of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 17 million members, as opposed to this Community of Christ Church denomination, which has about 250,000 members. This group is less secretive and suspicious.
