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The LDS church has purchased the original Kirtland temple, the mansion house in Nauvoo, and several other properties and artifacts from the Community of Christ for an undisclosed sum. Interesting. I figured it would happen one day. I guess today’s the day. Quote:The Church paid US$192.5 million without assigning specific values to the properties and items.
The purchase included more than just the Kirtland temple. It sounds as if they got several items in the purchase and there wasn’t a price associated with any one individual item in the collection.
At what point is the price too high? Minyan Man wrote:
At what point is the price too high?
When you’ve got more than $100 billion, do prices even matter anymore?
What does this transaction say about the Community of Christ church? I personally don’t know very much about them.
Is their membership going down?
Do they need the cash?
Anyone can probably infer that the answer is yes to both questions.
The Community of Christ’s website says they have 250,000 members. The Community of Christ publishes financial statements and updates on their website. The highlights is that they ran a deficit of $500,000 in the year 2023 but surpluses from 2021 and 2022 covered it. They report their operating reserves as about $8.9 million, which is shockingly low. I guess they have more reserves now.
Open books. Ahhhhh. Wish we could do it.
About six years ago the Community of Christ sold the Book of Mormon printer’s manuscript to the church for $35 million.
I get the feeling that the Community of Christ isn’t well off. With the sale of the printer’s manuscript and more recently the Kirtland Temple and other properties, I get the sense that they have expenses they might not be able to cover and will leverage the fact that they have things that someone with extremely deep pockets (LDS church) wants. The longer they hold out, the more money they can get.
More power to them.
I see the Community of Christ as trying to stay afloat while it feels like the LDS church uses wealth to increase power and influence. The reported bullying tactics used in Cody, WY as an example of what obscene amounts of wealth can do to people’s ethics.
It is my understanding that the CoC has been financially struggling to maintain the properties for years. I was expecting this in the near future, I guess the near future just got closer. This sale should help their overall operating costs, not just from the sale price but in the relief of not maintaining these properties. I have not been to Kirtland although it is on my bucket list. I actually wish I had done so before this sale. I think the church will significantly change the experience.
I went to Kirtland about 25 years ago but the day I was there the Kirtland Temple was closed. 😥 It will be interesting to see how the church will use the Kirtland Temple: – Will it continue to be a tourist attraction?
– Or will it be a real temple like SLC, Chicago or Provo?
Another question:
– What will the rededication look like? Anything like the first? (that’s 2 questions)
In the FAQ they said that the plan was to keep the Kirtland Temple open to the public, a tourist attraction. They also said they were going to build a real temple in Cleveland (about 30 minutes away). DarkJedi wrote:
I have not been to Kirtland although it is on my bucket list. I actually wish I had done so before this sale. I think the church will significantly change the experience.
I found a recorded Community of Christ tour on youtube.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7KLlPPw33M[/youtube] And yes, I’m sure the experience will change. If it’s not already the case, I can see missionaries being called to serve in the Kirtland, OH area similar to how missionaries serve at Temple Square and other historic sites. Maybe not a full-time mission dedicated to just Kirtland… maybe they’d rotate people in and out of being a Kirtland tour group missionary from neighboring proselyting missions.
nibbler wrote:
In the FAQ they said that the plan was to keep the Kirtland Temple open to the public, a tourist attraction. They also said they were going to build a real temple in Cleveland (about 30 minutes away).
Darn. I was looking forward to angels singing on the rooftop again.
The LDS church pays $192,500,000 for a tourist attraction. Funds that came from Tithing & investments from Tithing. I’m trying really hard to wrap my head around this. Has the church done a Return on Investment for this purchase?
Maybe they consider it a good Missionary program? No, that doesn’t work for me either.
My best guess for the reason for the purchase is that they feel it solidifies the claim that we’re the true restoration church out of all the branches. For all of our temples, we didn’t have the first one. The only one that Joseph Smith was actually around for. I found this interesting. It appears all inclusive information.
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