c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ An interracial team of Mormon teenagers and men present the sacrament of bread and water, passing the elements to congregants on silver trays. The congregation sings “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful,” with blacks joining in with Latinos and whites.

The scene illustrates how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, celebrating the 200th birthday of founder Joseph Smith, has expanded far beyond white Utahans to include _ and some say embrace _ people of color.

Across the country, new chapels have opened or are planned to house congregations that are predominantly black or Spanish-speaking. And while the church doesn’t keep statistics by race, there are now more Mormons abroad than in the United States, highlighted by growth over nine years of 133 percent in Africa, 64 percent in the Caribbean and 51 percent in Central America.

In this congregation known as the Washington, D.C., Third Ward, church officials say people of all races are welcome, a far cry from the days, before 1978, when blacks of African descent were barred from the Mormon priesthood.

On a recent Sunday, Lisa Smith, an African-American convert from Catholicism, rises to give testimony to her faith.

“I know that the church is true,” says Smith, thanking the congregation for its support during an illness.

“I know that Joseph Smith had a vision and I know that the gospel was restored through him. This church is the true church. When I’m not here, I miss being here.”

This entire year, the worldwide LDS church has been commemorating the 200th birthday of Smith, who said he was visited by God the Father, Jesus Christ and an angel named Moroni. The celebrations culminate Dec. 23, the day Smith was born in Vermont.

Media attention has focused on the church’s explosive growth, to 12.2 million members, and the beliefs of Smith, whom Newsweek described in a cover story as a “prophet and polygamist, mesmerizer and rabble-rouser, saint and sinner.” Sometimes overlooked is the fact that a church widely perceived as white has become increasingly and deliberately diverse.

Lisa Smith and other worshippers recently learned that the church’s top leaders in Salt Lake City have approved construction of a $10 million edifice that will house them and a second Spanish-speaking congregation.

It’s just the latest example of Mormons making investments in multiethnic communities far beyond Utah.

“Mark my word on this, … the world will soon see that the LDS Church is a leader in bringing diverse people together in one common cause because the cause is Christ,” said Ahmad S. Corbitt, the African-American president of the stake, or regional area of Mormons, in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Corbitt recently participated in opening ceremonies at chapels in New York’s Harlem neighborhood and in Philadelphia that will cater to diverse members.

Mormons have come a long way from the days when blacks were not permitted to be ordained into the church’s lay male priesthood.

Jorge T. Becerra, president of the stake in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, estimates that there are now 40 to 50 Spanish-speaking congregations in Utah, where his family moved from Mexico City in the 1960s.

“The Latino wards were here but they were very sparse and so maybe they didn’t feel a connection to a church that’s predominantly white,” said Becerra, the son of converts from Catholicism. “Really that has changed here recently since, I would say, 10 to 20 years ago. Hispanic congregations are growing. They get to hear the gospel in their own language.”

The image of the church among blacks began to change in 1978 when then-President Spencer W. Kimball declared that he had received a “revelation” that the priesthood was no longer limited by color. Daryl White, a 60-year-old Spelman College professor who was raised Mormon but no longer practices the faith, said the change was profound for Latter-day Saints.

“You can ask them where they were when the revelation occurred and they can tell you,” said White. “It’s like `Where were you when you found out that John F. Kennedy was assassinated?”’

Before 1978, if missionaries expected a white face behind a door and discovered a black person instead, they might leave a pamphlet but not push to come back for a second meeting.

In contrast, Bishop Al Jackson, the African-American bishop of a Kensington, Md., congregation, said gatherings at the visitors center at the Washington Temple include events dedicated to Black History Month, Japanese members and Hispanic members.

“We’re not trying to focus too much on just our differences or our skin colors but what we all have in common and that’s the gospel,” he said.

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Scholars and those with Mormon backgrounds say while much has been accomplished to make people of color welcome, more needs to be done.

“A particular offense occurs when well-meaning white members feel the need to offer their own `explanations’ for why the church had its discriminatory policy before 1978,” said Armand Mauss, professor emeritus of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, and the author of “All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage.”

“Such `explanations’ too often fall back on unofficial folklore about curses on biblical counterfigures like Cain, ideas that Mormons borrowed from other Christians during the 19th century.”

Another major step in diversity, some say, will be in the makeup of the hierarchy. Broadcasts of meetings featuring the top leaders of the church reveal that they are still predominantly white and North American, said White, the Spelman professor.

“That’s going to change much more slowly,” he said of the hierarchy, pointing out that as religions go, Mormonism is still quite young.

“It took a long time,” he said, “before there was a non-Italian Catholic pope.”

MO/PH END BANKS

Editors: Suitable as an advance for 200th birthday of Joseph Smith on Dec. 23

To obtain photos of Lisa Smith, Bishop Jackson and others in the story, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. Also search the Web site for a graphic showing church growth in North America and abroad.