The Stone church celebrates 135 years
The Stone Church celebrated 135 years as an active
congregation on May 25, 2008. It has now been
120 years since the cornerstone of the building was
set in place on April 6, 1888. The structure is now a
familiar icon in Independence, Missouri.
The congregation’s story is intimately tied to the larger
story of the Community of Christ. Throughout much of its history
it was often referred to as the “pulpit of the Presidency.”
Many church members treasure the Stone Church as the place
where they were baptized, shared in its remarkable Sunday
school, or where they were married. Especially in times past,
it was where out-of-town visitors would attend on Sundays,
a new “home congregation” for church members during their
retirement years, or the preferred site for a funeral or memorial
service.
The prophetic call of the Stone Church is not to memorialize
the past, however. The current congregation builds on
these strong roots toward a future where God’s vision of a vibrant
new community embodies shalom, the peace of Jesus
Christ.
The Stone Church sits next to the sixty-three acre tract
of land consecrated and dedicated in August 1831 by Joseph
Smith Jr. as the “land of Zion and the spot for the temple.” The
Saints who gathered to Independence in the 1830s stayed
only a short time. Other local residents forced them out of
Independence and then from northwestern Missouri. They
went on to what would become Nauvoo, Illinois. The vision
of Zion in Independence faded when the church split into several
groups after the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844.
In 1860, the eldest son of the slain prophet, Joseph Smith
III, accepted leadership of what became known as the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (renamed
Community of Christ in 2001). Beginning in the late 1860s,
some members of the Reorganization began to reclaim the vision
by gathering back to the Independence area.
The Henry Etzenhouser family was one such family, arriving in Independence in March 1870. They joined with other
Saints and began holding meetings. A branch of the church
was organized on May 25, 1873, with Priest Henry Etzenhouser
as pastor. They first met in the courthouse, then moved to the
second floor of the Chrisman-Sawyer Bank Building.
Talk among the growing number of Saints soon turned
to the possibility of building their own house of worship.
Henry Etzenhouser owned a brick-making business, so many
members volunteered to work there to make extra bricks.
They built a thirty-six by fifty-foot church building at Lexington
and Pearl Streets, just east of the county courthouse.
The growth of the church was steady. When Joseph Smith III
dedicated the building in 1884, they had already outgrown it.
Rather than expanding it, the members agreed to erect a new
church building.
In 1880, the Daniel Bowen family had settled near Stewartsville,
Missouri. Daniel was alone outside his home one day
when he heard a voice saying, “Look south.” He and his wife
pondered the message but could not understand its meaning.
Some months later the same voice spoke to him again: “There
is a piece of land in Independence for you.” This time he responded
by arranging his affairs so he could travel to Independence.
On his arrival he looked for a real estate agent and asked
the first man he saw where he could find the land office. The
man was a broker and began to show him sites around town.
While engaged in the sight-seeing tour of Independence, Daniel prayed that the Holy Spirit would help him find the right
plot of land to buy. As he passed the Temple Lot, the Spirit told
him to buy the land across the road north of the Temple Lot.
He bought the land without hesitation.
When the congregation began talking about where to
build a new church, Daniel offered the land. Many thought
the half mile from the square was too far from town, but the
leadership determined that it was the perfect spot for the
church. This nearness to the Temple Lot was just the place
for their new brick church. However, the masons prevailed
and determined stone was a better choice. The only native
building stone in the area surrounding the church was limestone.
Charles Sperry, whose father was one of the masons
who worked on the building, says the stone was quarried near
Warrensburg, Missouri. It was transported by rail to the station
at the bottom of the hill where the Auditorium would be
built decades later. Workers transported the stone up River
Street by wagon to the site and then cut each piece on-site.
This beautiful building served often as the church’s
“meetinghouse” from that time on. Joseph Smith III, Frederick
M. Smith, Israel A. Smith, W. Wallace Smith, Wallace
B. Smith, W. Grant McMurray, and Stephen Veazey have each
preached from its pulpit. General Conferences met there before
the nearby Auditorium was built. Yet the Stone Church
continues to play a major role at World Conferences by providing
worship and meeting space for quorums, orders, and
committees.
The same Spirit that prompted Daniel Bowen and others
to put their building on this spot makes it holy and sacred. Joseph
Luff sang “Admonition” (HS 387) for the first time during
a prayer meeting at the Stone Church. Such church stalwarts
as F. Henry Edwards, Arthur Oakman, Geoffrey Spencer, and
Maurice Draper (to name but a few) have proclaimed the gospel
from its pulpit.
The first of its three pipe organs was dedicated in 1903.
The first performance of the Messiah occurred at the Stone
Church in 1916. Many choirs and orchestras and quartets of
voice and instrument have filled the air with music for worship
and entertainment. Other Stone Church notables are the
beginning of the Laurel Club (1906); one of the first Boy Scout
troops west of the Mississippi (1910); and the current stainedglass
windows (1970). The Stone Church sponsored the first
Christian radio broadcasts in the Kansas City area with the
call letters KLDS, which later became KMBC (1920s). Arthur
Oakman and Evan Fry were two popular radio preachers.
Stone Church membership steadily increased as people responded
to the gospel message and were baptized, and as other
church members moved to town. It soon became necessary to
start new congregations. Ten new congregations emerged in
response to members discerning God’s call to be in mission.
The most recent is Open Arms congregation (2007), dedicated
and committed to ministering to the people who live in the
shadows of the Temple and Auditorium.
We continue to celebrate the voice of God speaking to
the Stone Church. From the beginning, that voice has spoken
through preaching, singing, and teaching. It is an eternal
voice of God’s Spirit bringing the church into existence. The
Stone Church will continue to discern God’s will so our ministries
come to fuller expression as a congregation “in the areas
around the Temple.” The Stone Church remains committed to
its early purpose as a “house of the Lord.” The gospel of Jesus
Christ is our message. The Spirit of Christ touches the hearts and souls of all who pass through its doors.
Written by Henry Volskay and Greg Savage, Pastor
Reprinted from the April 2008 Herald
