The first order of business for delegates to the week-long Community of Christ World Conference in Independence, Missouri, this Saturday morning is to consider the call of Stassi D. Cramm as the church’s prophet-president. She is currently a counselor in the First Presidency.. Once the conference is officially organized, Prophet-President Stephen M. Veazey will hand over presiding duties to the Council of Twelve Apostles.
Stassi Cramm is a native of Illinois and graduated with a BS degree in engineering from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. She later earned a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix, a master’s degree in religion from Community of Christ Seminary, and a Ph.D. in organizational management from Capella University. She began her working career as a flight test engineer for the U.S. Air Force. She was ordained to the office of priest in the church (then known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or sinmply RLDS Church) in 1987 and has been working for the church since then. She has served as administrator of the Southwest USA Region, as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, and as presiding bishop, the church’s chief financial officer. She is 62 years old.
President Veazey announced his intended retirement at the Conference two years ago. Now at age 68, he says he is looking forward to spending more time with his extended family and to finally have more time for his favorite hobby, fly-fishing, as well as personal ministerial activity. He has served as prophet-president since June 2005. The previous year President W. Grant McMurray resigned unexpectedly due to early onset Parkinson’s disease and other personal reasons. Grant McMurray had served as prophet-president since 1996 and was the first person to occupy that office who was not a direct descendant of Joseph Smith, Jr., who founded the Latter Day Saint movement in 1830. His son, Joseph Smith III, became the first president of the Reorganization. He, in turn, was succeeded by three of his sons: Frederick M. Smith, Israel A. Smith, and W. Wallace Smith; and the latter’s son, Wallace B. Smith.
It will be a busy weekend to begin the Conference. After formal presentation of Stassi Cramm’s call in the morning session (8:30 a.m. to 12 noon CDT), it will be considered that afternoon in the church’s councils, quorums, orders, mass meetings of elders and Aaronic priesthood, and the general delegates meeting. Saturday evening (7:00 to 8:30 p.m. CDT) will be a celebration of President Veazey’s 20 years leading the church. Sunday morning is the traditional Communion service (10 a.m. to 12 noon CDT). Sunday afternoon’s business session (2 to 4:30 p.m. CDT) will be the formal consideration of President-designate Cramm’s prophetic call. If, as expected, that call is approved, she will be ordained Sunday evening (7 to 8:30 p.m. CDT). All those activities will take place in the 5,800-seat Auditorium conference chamber. Each will be live-streamed on the church’s YouTube channel here.
Grant McMurray was the last prophet-president to be called by his predecessor. After his resignation, the Council of Twelve led a year-long, churchwide discernment process that culminated in Stephen Veazey’s selection. Two years ago President Veazey announced a similar discernment process, but under the direction of the First Presidency. However, several months later he suffered a serious medical event, which prompted him to turn the process over to the Council of Twelve Apostles. As prophet-president of Community of Christ, Stephen M. Veazey presented three inspired documents to World Conferences that are now part of the church’s Doctrine and Covenants: Section 163 (2007), Section 164 (2010), and Section 165 (2013, 2016).
Two current apostles are set to become counselors in the First Presidency: Bunda Chibwe from Zambia and Janne Grover of the USA. Current counselor Scott Murphy will be retiring, although serving for at least a year as special assistant to the FP during the transition. Apostle Mareva Arnaud Tchong from French Polynesia, currently president of the Council of Twelve, will become presiding evangelist.
There will be other significant happenings at the conference, as well. President-designate Cramm has selected six new apostles, which signals a “changing of the guard” from the current Baby Boomer generation of top church leaders to younger men and women. Apostles Robin Linkhart and David Nii from the USA are retiring; Apostle Shandra Newcom is leaving for health considerations. The six new apostles will be: Shannon McAdam from Canada; Adam Wade from Australia; and four from the USA: Carrie Welch, Joey Williams, Kathleen (Kat) Hnatyshyn, and Matthew Frizzell. The newly designated apostles are in their forties to early fifties. Their ordinations are scheduled for Tuesday evening at a worship service in the Temple, across the street from the Auditorium. It, too, will be livestreamed.
Conference delegates will also discuss a major statement on nonviolence as a core approach for the church and its membership, as well as considering legislation from several of the church’s mission centers.
The church’s current financial situation has improved somewhat, thanks to a major fundraising effort to fully fund the church’s employee pension program and from the separate sale of historic church properties to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than US$100 million. But longer-term issues remain, including an aging membership in North America, decreasing tithing income, and the continued rapid expansion of the church in so-called developing countries which are unable to be completely self-supporting. That has hampered the church’s missionary efforts. Those challenges are at the top of the list for the new prophet-president, Council of Twelve Apostles, Presiding Bishopric, and the membership at-large.
- The Community of Christ has certainly taken a different path from the LDS Church, but as is apparent in yesterday’s W&T post, members of both churches long for a strong sense of community. But are the forces in contemporary society just too strong now for any church to succeed?
- My own hunch is that, even given the true significance of a woman called to be prophet-president, the generational change beginning the transition from my own Baby Boomer cohort to younger leaders may prove just as crucial for the church’s chance to survive and possibly thrive.
Wheat & Tares 
A few things to know: Robin Linkhart (not Karin Peter) is stepping out of the Council of Twelve.
Karin Peter remains senior president of Seventy.
Bunda Chibwe is from Zambia.
Thanks Elaine. I’ll make those changes.
What an interesting update! When I went to the Sunstone Symposium last fall, I really liked listening to the CoC speakers. One of them talked about the upheaval and transition when the Community of Christ began ordaining women, and gave some of the background to possibly calling the first woman president. It will be interesting to see how the ‘changing of the guard’ to a younger generation will affect the CoC.
Really interesting summary, Rich. What I notice is that allowing/requiring retirement at some point (late 60s, mid 70s) makes it easier to call younger persons (40s, 50s) into the senior quorum. In the LDS Church, it’s late 50s to early 60s for most apostle calls.
Thanks for this write up Rich. Wishing you all the best for a great conference.
First female Prophet-Prrsident? Year long discernment process? Apostles in thier40s and 5Os? Holy envy, Batman! 🤣… Thank you for the update and all the best to our CofC brothers and sisters.
Do the apostles maintain secular employment, or do church salaries adequately cover their expenses? I do not need to know the amount, but do the members have access to the numbers? At what level does the ministry transition from volunteer to paid?
The apostles are fully employed by the church, under the category of “appointee ministers.”
HokieKate:
Some but not all regional and national officers (mission center presidents and financial officers) are employed by the church. Specific salaries of employees, executive ministers, and appointees are not made public. As a now retired executive minister at church headquarters (I was an editorial & communications specialist), I can attest the remuneration is not excessive.
She has impressive qualifications for the job. Perhaps the two churches could amalgamate. The lds church could contribute numbers, and money. The almost dead lds leaders could retire, and let c o c bring lds into the 21st century.
The Saturday evening service was amazing: wonderful congregational singing interspersed with statements of who and what the Community of Christ has become, especially during the past 20 years of Steve Veazey’s leadership. I’m so glad the service was livestreamed and now archived.
An interesting historical note from Saturday morning after President Veazey left the chair and his First Presidency was officially vacated. Assuming the chair was Q12 president Maureva Tchong, a French-speaker from Tahiti; she was assisted by Apostle Carlis Meija, a Spanish-speaker from Honduras, and Apostle Richard James, from Wales in the UK. The “temporary FP” represented the first time a non-English-speaker presided at Conference, and assisted by 2 others from outside North America.
During the presentation of Stassi Cramm’s call to be CofC prophet-president Saturday morning, the gathered delegates and others in the congregation sang what is a quintessential latter-day saint hymn. The tune is the same, but a few years ago the CofC made substantial changes to the text of stanzas one and three, in particular, shifting the focus from just an individual to the community:
We thank you, O God, for our prophets who guide us in witness today.
We thank you for sending the gospel enlightening our minds with its rays.
We thank you for every blessing bestowed by your generous hand.
We lift up our promise to serve you, to bring healing and peace to all lands.
A people God calls to be prophetic will walk in the way of the Christ.
Welcome all who would join in the journey seeking joy in God’s life-giving light.
By prayer, may we always be open to bear further truth God would give.
We dare to act boldly for justice, and serve so that others may live.
The singing today of the Spirit of God! The enthusiasm! The multitude of languages! The spontaneous soprano descant soaring over everything! The organ having fun playing with the music and encouraging the audience to sing with vigour!
The service today of the setting apart
of Stassi Cramm was deeply moving. Not only for the enthusiastic singing of the audience, but for the deliberate and intentional inclusion of diverse voices, as well as the thoughtful personal blessing shared by the outgoing Prophet Stephen Veazey. I am glad I was able to join in on line
Niki-la:
So glad you and many others could be a part of the service online tonight. It was the high point to an amazing, deeply spiritual weekend at Conference. We do love to sing “The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning”!
So, where will this transition take the Community of Christ? I’ll venture an opinion.
The Church will continue its shift toward social/theological liberalism, resulting in alienation and loss of many members. Don’t believe me? For the last FIFTY YEARS the church has proclaimed a total worldwide membership of a quarter million. Some would call that zero growth. Yet, with each change in doctrine, leaders say it’s an exciting time in the life of the church.
Having a more traditional faith stance in the COC will be “incorrect”. Don’t believe me? There’s a congregation in my state that uses the RLDS name instead of COC. They call women to the priesthood, but that’s about as far down that road as they’ll go. They were visited by their regional (female) apostle and were told to “get with the program”. The congregation told her to “get out”. When it came time to build a new complex, they wisely refused funding from the COC world headquarters in order to avoid the attached strings.
Can you imagine a process where there is an actual discussion among delegates and attendees at a conference, with the future of the church as the topic? Also, time is set aside to make a good decision instead of having a meeting behind closed doors with only “old” men. I think the will of God could be manifest much more clearly, rather than through conjecture.
Really interesting article, Rich! The topic and the historical significance are truly fascinating. I’d love to have more conversations with you about the ideas you share. Do you happen to use Instagram or Google Chat so we can connect further? You seem like a really nice person.