Tom Bennett invited me to visit Centennial Park, Arizona, just south of the Utah border and about 50 minutes southeast of St George, Utah. Come along as we visit the community and I share my impressions of my church visit. Check out our conversation…
Do you know Centennial Park?
Centennial Park is a group of Mormon fundamentalists that split from the FLDS church in 1984. Their community is just a few miles south of Short Creek in Arizona. I was able to drive to Centennial Park to attend church and here are a few of my impressions.
Attending Church Service
I was surprised to learn that members are expected to do Sunday School and the Sacrament service at home with their families. I was told that Priesthood meeting had approximately 500 men in attendance on Saturday night. I told Tom he should have let me know so I could attend. I learned that non-members are not invited to priesthood meetings.
About 500-600 attended the Sunday “Sacrament Meeting” (which excludes the sacrament.) The leader picks people at random to speak. No talks were prepared, although I did notice that some had a notecard, just in case they were called, so they could share a passage from Journal of Discourses or other quote that was useful for their sermon. Talks were much more interesting than an LDS service. I was told the meetings are 2 hours, but often go long and do not close until the leader feels it is time to end. My meeting was two-and-a-half-hours. No children under the age of 8 are allowed to attend, so the service was very reverent. Nursing mothers are expected to watch the service from home. Relief Society and primary do not exist.
Church Service
Missionaries are basically service missionaries, doing tasks around town, like collecting garbage. I was surprised to see about 6 rows of missionaries sitting on the left side of the chapel. To start the meeting, the leader asked missionaries who hadn’t prayed in a meeting. Hands shot up. “What’s your name?” Missionary responds. “Who are your parents?” Missionary responds and then comes up. I remember for the closing prayer, the missionary raised his right arm to the square to pray. (It may have also happened for the opening prayer, but I didn’t notice.)
I was surprised when one speaker, a church leader, recounted the story of Rulon Jeffs, who led the FLDS Church. Knowing the rancorous splits between FLDS and CP, I was surprised to hear them mention Rulon Jeffs. But, before the 1984 split, the two groups were one group, and the 1930s story discussed Rulon (who served a mission with Gordon B Hinckley.) Rulon Jeffs married Zola Brown, daughter of Hugh B Brown. The speaker said that Rulon was willing to sacrifice his family in order to join polygamy as a godly principle. The implication was that Hugh Brown used unrighteous dominion to try to prevent Rulon from participating in polygamy. As a result, both Brown and Heber J Grant lost their priesthood, “if they ever had it.” It was quite an interesting recounting of a story I’d heard before, but not from a fundamentalist perspective.
Respect for early Church Leaders
I was surprised that behind the speakers on the stand was a painting of Joseph Smith. It seems like in most newer LDS Churches, if there is a painting, it is of Jesus. On the right side of the chapel, there were paintings of Brigham Young, Martin Harris, Heber C Kimball, and one other person I don’t remember (perhaps John Taylor.) They were surprised I had trouble reciting the LDS Prophets in order, because they sure could. One person remarked that the LDS Church excommunicated him in 1939 and he was born in 1946. What he meant by that was by excommunicating his father in 1939, it basically excommunicated his father’s future children. This man recognizes the LDS Church’s authority, but the LDS Church does not recognize his baptism. It was an interesting perspective to hear. Yes, he is a Mormon, despite Russell Nelson’s admonishment to shun the term.
Tour of Centennial Park and Short Creek
It was interesting to tour the Centennial Park community and the high school/church building. The well-maintained houses were quite large and you can tell the community is well-to-do. I also drove through Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, AZ. The 2 cities sit on opposite sides of the Utah-Arizona border to make easy escape across state lines. I remember visiting the site of the 1953 raid when AZ and UT officials cooperated to round up the men, women, & children of the community. I visited the Isaac Carling Memorial Park cemetery, highlighting the unique burial mounds and notable graves including Prophet Leroy Johnson and Prophet Rulon Jeffs. This the only cemetery I’ve ever visited that had dirt piled on top of the graves in order to prevent people from walking on the graves. It was an interesting site.
Of all the Restoration groups I’ve visited (RLDS, Bickertonite, Hedrickite, Peterson Group), Centennial Park felt the most LDS. They used the old LDS hymnbooks with copyright dates of 1948 to 1979. I can tell why some are attracted to the services. The talks were more interesting. The people sang with gusto. While I know many would balk at being called up at random, these people all seemed to have been prepared just in case, and gave heartfelt messages. These people were much more eager than traditional LDS are.
Are you familiar with Centennial Park? Have you visited any fundamentalist churches? Do you think picking people at random to speak would make for more interesting sacrament meetings?
Wheat & Tares 
I really enjoy these glimpses into the practices of other Mormon groups.
Picking people at random would make LDS meetings more interesting, I’m undecided whether it would make them better at the same time. On the one hand, you could get some phenomenally unprepared and rambling remarks, but also, I’d expect more candor and more passion. Personally, I’d rather hear someone talk on a topic they were passionate about that doesn’t interest me, than a topic that I love that they find boring.
Long ago, priests raised their arm to the square for blessing the sacrament.
I retrained as a registered nurse (RN) about 10 years ago. We moved to southern Utah to attend Dixie State (not Utah Tech). I had a classmate who was FLDS and she was from the Centennial Park group. She was a very young, attractive girl in her early 20s. She was living with her boyfriend and, to my knowledge, was not active. I used to see her in the gym that is big in this area. We became pretty good friends through work and school. I asked her all sorts of questions about polygamy, probably prying a bit too much. She talked a lot about the differences between her group and the fundamentalist group (her group attended HS). She was a huge football fan and if you looked at her, you would assume she was an all-American girl (blond-haired, blue-eyed). But I also know that her father passed away a few years ago. I think she had like 20 or 30 siblings, most of whom she didn’t know. Also, there were a few charge RNs (supervisors) who worked in the hospital that were FLDS (fundamentalist). They wore the traditional FLDS outfit instead of scrubs. Mohave Community College is where many of the FLDS RNs trained. It seems like RN was a profession that many of the “working wives” were allowed to pursue as a career. Culturally, I would say the Centennial Park vibes I got from my friend was similar to what I experienced growing up in Utah County.
I meant to write: We moved to southern Utah to attend Dixie State (now Utah Tech).