First Presidency (Community of Christ)
Highest ecclesiastical body in Community of Christ
The First Presidency of Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the church's highest-ranking priesthood quorum. It is composed of the Prophet-President and two counselors, and they preside over the whole church under the principles of "theocratic democracy" observed in the governance of the church. This includes responsibility for the World Conference, field ministries, priesthood quorums and orders, and headquarters functions. The president of the Church holds the priesthood office of Prophet and is also a High Priest.
In 1860 with the reorganization of the First Presidency, Joseph Smith III became the second prophet-president of this church and also president of a new First Presidency. William Marks became Smith's First Counselor.
In Community of Christ, each new church president has generally been "designated" as the successor by the preceding church president. The counselors in the First Presidency are then chosen by the church president and are often, but not required, to be former or current members of the Council of Twelve Apostles. In addition, the death or resignation of the Prophet-President does not dissolve the First Presidency, which continues on as the church's executive council in the persons of the remaining two presidents until a Prophet-President is called. The two members who were counselors to the prophet-president cease to be counselors during this time.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as highest ecclesiastical body in Community of Christ. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5453720. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1860.
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This entry incorporates text from “First Presidency (Community of Christ)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.