Apostle Paul Savage of the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message
Sunstone has been going on since Wednesday here in Salt Lake City. It ends tomorrow, and I thought I would give a few words about the conference. I have been blogging here at Mormon matters for about a year and a half, and have never met any other bloggers here….until this week! It has been nice to nice BiV and Stephen Marsh. I hope to meet others tomorrow. It was also nice to meet with a few apostles.
I met Paul at the MHA convention in May, and he gave a presentation titled “Why Elijah (or John the Baptist) must come before Christ’s Return”. I wasn’t able to attend his presentation, but spoke with him for a few minutes. I learned he is one of 6 apostles for his church, based in Independence, Missouri. Their church believes apostles are the highest office in the church, and they believe that many people can be prophets. He noted that the Ephesians 4:11 lists apostles before prophets, so apostles should be the top of the hierarchy.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Robin Linkart, President of the 6th Quorum of Seventy for the Community of Christ
It was fun talking to him. I’ve been reading Scattering of the Saints by John Hamer and Newell Bringhurst, and plan to talk more about Paul’s church in the future. I also enjoyed meeting with Apostle Susan Skoor of the Community of Christ, formerly known as the RLDS church. (I already have a photo of her on my previous post–click here.) She is always extremely friendly, and a treat to meet. She introduced me to Robin Linkart, the President of the 6th Quorum of Seventy. She lives in Colorado, and is in charge of missionary efforts in the western United States from the Canadian border to Mexico, California to Kansas. (Sorry the photos are out of focus–I guess my $40 camera is only worth what I paid for it.)
CoC Historian Mark Scherer
Mark Scherer, is the historian for the Community of Christ. He gave an interesting presentation on the latest revelation to be canonized in the Community of Christ, section 164 of the Doctrine and Covenants. He said the revelation covers 4 main topics: (1) open communion, (2) open baptism (don’t have to be rebaptized to join the RLDS church anymore), (3) moral and ethical behavior (allows countries to decide if they want to allow same sex marriage), and (4) the RLDS strives to collaborate more with evangelical Christians.
Bridget Jack Meyers, (aka “Jack”–she blogs at Clobberblog), gave a fascinating presentation called “Evidence for Women’s Priesthood in the Earliest Christianity. She is a “never Mormon” that earned a BA degree from BYU and “seduced” (her words) a Mormon man there. She is studying at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She outlined various scriptures showing early women Christian leaders, including a woman by the name of Junia in Romans 16:7. Jack says Junia was a female apostle, and quoted early Christian theologian John Chrysostum discussing her. Early Christian theologian Origen discussed a female leader by the name of Phoebe. Jack gave many other examples, and it certainly deserves a blog post or two to discuss her research.
Yesterday, I was able to attend Stephen Marsh‘s session called “How an Unpleasant Truth Can Be More Inspirational than a Pleasant Fiction.” I learned that the session was based on his post from October, titled The Stories We Tell. Briefly, Stephen told the true story about his daughter standing up for a disabled classmate. Often stories such as this end with a happy ending where everyone realizes that they shouldn’t tease a disabled person, but in Stephen’s story, his daughter becomes ostracized. Often, we don’t have happy endings, and sometimes it is hard to understand why God doesn’t bless us for doing the right thing. I also learned that Stephen has 5 daughters, but 3 of them have died, despite his prayers to have them live. It was an interesting presentation. Often we learn more from our trials than our triumphs.
I’m excited to attend tomorrow. If you’re in SLC, I encourage you to attend. It’s at the Sheraton Hotel on 150 West 500 South. If you attended, what sessions did you enjoy? Do you have any questions about the sessions I attended?
Comments 10
Mormon Heretic, I’d never guessed you were so tall. I think your focus problems with the camera are either low light issues or, more likely, that you are just too far away from the people whose photographs you are taking. 😉
My daughter was delighted to meet you. Funniest comment I heard about her was that “obviously that’s not the daughter he was talking about, she is too pretty and no one throws a pretty girl out of a group.”
I remember being at a presentation where Hugh Nibley outlined various scriptures showing early women Christian leaders who held the priesthood. It is an interesting theme.
Thanks for this quick summary.
“the RLDS strives to collaborate more with evangelical Christians.”
Probably were they belong.
These apostles seem to be the ‘good and honourable people’ who will fit in well in the terrestrial kingdom, as most good evangelicals will…spending time with Jesus…..
I chatted with Susan Skoor yesterday in the hall. I know she was with CoC, but I did not realize she was an apostle until reading this post just now. She was so friendly. She almost converted me, not be trying but by being so likeable. As a political and theological liberal, I have become interested in the Community of Christ. She answered my questions about the differences between CoC and the Salt Lake LDS church.
I am hanging with my family this morning, but I am presenting at today at 2:15. MH, I would love to meet you (especially after your posts on ETB)
stephen, it was great to meet you and your daughter. she is a beautiful, smart, and impressive young woman, and it was fun to sit next to her and listen to you describe the story of her standing up for the classmate. she is obviously a wonderful christian as well.
carlos, I am always uncomfortable when we denigrate and judge others. isn’t that god’s job, not yours?
chris, I would love to meet you. a few of us will meet at the registration desk at lunch. if you want to join us, that would be great.
mh,
🙂
mh, thanks.
Carlos:
Perhaps you should read Apostle Skoor’s story here:
http://www.cofchrist.org/enduringprinciples/creation.asp
and then you can ponder the following: If you make it to the CK, how do you plan to use your exhalted power?
Firetag:
I read Susan Skoor’s article and the encouragement to be involved in community groups/projects. This hearkens back to D&C 151:9 given in 1974, but it mentions “organizations and movements which are recognizing the worth of persons and ARE COMMITTED TO BRINGING THE MINISTRY OF MY SON TO BEAR ON THEIR LIVES. (caps mine)
The problem today is many of the environmental groups reject a spiritual input, much less a Christian one; it’s not politically correct.
I would refrain from participating in organizations that would cause me to go against my Gospel principles/beliefs.
Mark:
I don’t think there is necessarily a one-to-one correlation between those who do the work of Christ and those who are CONSCIOUS that they are doing the work of Christ. On the otherhand, not everyone that “saith, ‘Lord, Lord'”… is actually interested in doing good as much as in doing well.
I am more concerned about whether my church BEHAVES in accord with its professed beliefs, or is aware of the implications of its beliefs, as I wrote here:
http://thefirestillburning.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/being-prophetic-someday/
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