KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Friday marked the dawn of a new name and, church officials hope, a new era for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The church, headquartered in Independence, now calls itself Community of Christ, the latest effort to distinguish itself from the Mormon Church, which is formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
RLDS delegates who voted for the change in April 2000 said the new name clarifies the church's identity and translates better into other languages as the church expands abroad.
"It's an effort to, in a positive way, say who we are instead of who we are not," said W. Grant McMurray, Community of Christ president.
Like the Mormons, the Community of Christ traces its history to Joseph Smith Jr., who believed he was chosen to restore the true church of Jesus Christ. The movement fragmented after Smith's death in 1844. The group that followed his son, Joseph Smith III, became known in the mid-1860s as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, has also struggled with its identity and recently asked its 11 million members to use "The Church of Jesus Christ" as a shortened form of the organization's title rather than the more common Mormon or LDS church.
