The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members in the state of New York. New York was the boyhood home of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Much of the early history of the now-worldwide LDS Church is centered in upstate New York. The LDS Church was organized on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, New York under the name of the Church of Christ.
Official church membership as a percentage of general population was 0.41% in 2014.[3] According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, less than 1% of New Yorkers self-identify themselves most closely with the LDS Church.[4] The LDS Church is the 13th largest denomination in New York.[5]
History
Membership in the New York
Year
Membership
1900
975
1930
1,500
1974
17,072
1989*
38,000
1999
60,516
2009
75,852
2019
83,293
*Membership was published as a rounded number. Source: Wendall J. Ashton; Jim M. Wall, Deseret News, various years, Church Almanac State Information: New York[1]
Smith received golden plates from the angel Moroni at the Hill Cumorah.Replica of a cabin at the Peter Whitmer Farm, Fayette (Waterloo), New York where the LDS Church was organized.
The early history of the LDS Church is deeply rooted in the state of New York with pivotal moments taking place in upstate New York and New York City. Joseph Smith stated that while praying in a wooded area near his home in Palmyra in 1820, God and Jesus Christ, in a vision, appeared to him and set in motion the eventual establishment of a new religion.[6]
According to his later accounts, Smith was visited by an angel named Moroni, while praying one night in 1823. Smith said that this angel revealed the location of a buried book made of golden plates that would be translated into the Book of Mormon.[7]
The completed work was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer E. B. Grandin. Soon after, on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ, and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York.[8] The Book of Mormon brought Smith regional notoriety and opposition from those who remembered the 1826 Chenango County trial.[9]
In July 1840, the first group of new converts from Liverpool, England, arrived on the Britannia ship in the New York harbor.[10]
On April 6, 2000, 170 years after the church was organized, the Palmyra New York Temple was dedicated. The temple overlooks the Sacred Grove and other historic sites. The first temple in New York City, the Manhattan New York Temple, was dedicated on 13 June 2004.[10]
Stakes
A meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan.
As of January 2024, New York was home to the following stakes:[11][12][13]
^Stake located outside New York with congregation(s) meeting in New York
Missions
Mission
Organized
New York New York City Mission*
6 May 1839
New York Syracuse Mission*
26 Jan 1964
New York New York Mission, originally known as the Eastern States, was organized on May 6, 1839. It was discontinued in 1850, 1858 and 1869, then reopened in 1854, 1865 and 1893 respectively. On June 20, 1974, it ras renamed the New York New York Mission, and then renamed New York New York South Mission on July 1, 1993, when the New York New York North Mission Was Created.
The Cumorah Mission was renamed the New York Rochester Mission on June 20, 1974.
Bermuda Branch
The Bermuda Branch was directly administered by the New York New York Mission as of May 2023. The LDS Church reported 197 members in the branch as of 2018.
Palmyra and Manchester, New York, U.S. February 21, 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley May 25, 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley April 6, 2000 by Gordon B. Hinckley 10,900 sq ft (1,010 m2) on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) site Classic modern, single spire - designed by Dave A. Richards; Church A&E Services
New York City, U.S. August 7, 2002 by Gordon B. Hinckley September 23, 2002 by Gordon B. Hinckley June 13, 2004 by Gordon B. Hinckley 20,630 sq ft (1,917 m2) on a 0.3-acre (0.12 ha) site - designed by Frank Fernandez
The Harrison New York Temple, previously known as the White Plains New York Temple, was a planned LDS Church temple that was to be constructed in Harrison, New York. Construction of the temple was to take place on a 24-acre site purchased by the LDS Church at the intersection of Interstate 287 and Hutchinson River Parkway. Reportedly, efforts had been underway until 2004, but construction was never started and eventually suspended. After delays by lawsuits and objections by local officials,[14] this temple was removed from the list on the LDS Church's official temple website soon after the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple in 2004.
Harrison, New York, U.S. September 30, 1995 by Gordon B. Hinckley 28,400 sq ft (2,640 m2) on a 24-acre (9.7 ha) site Originally named the White Plains New York Temple the temple was renamed as the Harrison New York Temple. Along with the Boston Massachusetts Temple, it was to be built instead of the Hartford Connecticut Temple announced in October 1992.[15] Reportedly, efforts were still underway in 2004, though delayed by lawsuits and objections by local officials. According to a Deseret News article about the Manhattan Temple. However, this temple was removed from the list on the Church's official temple website soon after the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple.
^Remini (2002, pp. 37–38); Bushman (2005, p. 39) (When Smith first described the vision twelve years after the event, "[h]e explained the vision as he must have first understood it, as a personal conversion"); Vogel (2004, p. 30) (the vision confirmed to Smith what he and his father already suspected: that the world was spiritually dead).
^Phelps (1833, p. 55) (noting that by July 1830, the church was "in Colesville, Fayette, and Manchester").
^Bushman (2005, p. 117)(noting that area residents connected the discovery of the Book of Mormon with Smith's past career as a money digger); Brodie (1971, pp. 80–82, 87) (discussing organized boycott of Book of Mormon by Palmyra residents, and opposition by Colesville and Bainbridge residents who remembered the 1826 trial).
^According to a Deseret News Article about the Manhattan Temple."N.Y. Temple to Get Spire". 10 June 2004. Archived from the original on June 12, 2004. Retrieved October 19, 2007.
Larry C., Porter, ed. (2000). New York and Pennsylvania. Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites. Vol. 2. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book. ISBN1-57008-668-0.
Lucas, James William (2001). "Mormons in New York City". In Carnes, Tony; Karpathakis, Anna (eds.). New York Glory: Religions in the City. New York University Press. pp. 196–211. ISBN0814716008.
Tiffany, Scott, ed. (2004). City Saints: Mormons in the New York Metropolis. New York Stake History Group: Distributed by Nauvoo Books. ISBN0850513030.
