Apostolic United Brethren
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The Apostolic United Brethren (hereafter AUB) is a polygamous fundamentalist sect not affiliated with the well-known The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The group has had a temple in Ozumba, Mexico since the 1990s or earlier, and an Endowment house in Utah since sometime in the 1980s.
The title "Apostolic United Brethren" is not generally used by members, who prefer to call it: the work; the priesthood; or the group. Those outside the faith once called it the "Allred" group, because two of its leaders had that surname. It should be noted the church does not have any ties to other Churches of the Brethren and associated groups.
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[edit] Membership
There are between 5000-8000 members of the AUB, most in Utah and Mexico. Its headquarters is in Bluffdale, Utah, where it has a chapel, school, archives, and sports field.
It has United Order communities in Rocky Ridge, Utah, Harvest Haven (in Eagle Mountain, Utah), Cedar City, Utah, and Granite, Utah. As well as communities and congregations in Pinesdale, Montana; Lovell, Wyoming; Mesa, Arizona; Humansville, Missouri; and Ozumba, Mexico. It operates at least 3 private schools (many families also homeschool or send their children to public schools).
Some members remain active[citation needed] in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter LDS Church), but keep their affiliation secret, as the support of ongoing plural marriage is grounds for excommunication from the LDS Church.
[edit] Organization
The AUB is headed by a President of the Priesthood, next in authority is a Priesthood Council (of which he is a part). Below this are Presidents of the Seventy, High Priests, Elders, Aaronic Priesthood, Relief Society, Sunday School, Young Women's, Boy Scouts, and Primary organizations (which may be different according to region). On a local level there are Bishops, Priesthood Council representatives, and Patriarchs.
[edit] Meetings
General Sacrament and Sunday School Meetings (as well as many private family Sunday Schools) take place on a Sunday, as do some Priesthood classes.
Relief Society (a women's organization), Young Women's, Primary and Scouting take place throughout the week.
At meetinghouses dances, firesides, musical events, plays, and classes often take place.
[edit] Doctrines & Practices
The AUB accept the Articles of Faith, written by Joseph Smith to summarize LDS beliefs. They believe the LDS Church is still fulfilling a divine role in its spreading the Book of Mormon and doing genealogy work.
The AUB is however best known for their belief in Plural Marriage, the United Order, the Adam-God doctrine, and what is commonly called the 1886 meeting (see History section). Child and spouse abuse and incest are considered serious sins, and those members who perpetrate such crimes are excommunicated and the victims are free to report such incidents to the police.
[edit] History
The AUB's claims to authority are based around the accounts of John Wickersham Woolley and Lorin Calvin Woolley and others of a meeting in September 1886 between LDS Church President John Taylor, the Woolleys and others. Prior to the meeting President Taylor is said to have met with the Church founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Jesus Christ, and to have received a revelation commanding that Plural marriage should not cease, but be kept alive by a separate group from the church, who would preserve the doctrine on earth. The following day the Woolleys, as well as Taylor's counselor George Q. Cannon and others, were set apart to keep "the principle" alive.
Members see their history as going back to Joseph Smith and to the beliefs he espoused and practices he established. As - they believe - the LDS Church has made changes to doctrines and ordinances, they see it as their responsibility to keep them alive in the form they were originally given and to live all the laws God has commanded.
Up until the 1950s Fundamentalists were largely one group, but with the ordination in 1951 of Rulon C. Allred by Joseph W. Musser, who then presided over the Fundamentalists, those Fundamentalists in Colorado City, Arizona (formerly known as Short Creek), became more distant and within a few years formed their own group - now called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The shooting of Rulon C. Allred by Rena Chynoweth in 1977 (under the direction of Ervil LeBaron) brought the AUB into the spotlight. He was succeeded by his brother, Owen Allred, who died in 2005 and was replaced by his appointed successor, J. LaMoine Jenson.
[edit] External links
- www.mormonfundamentalism.org (seems to be the unofficial AUB´s website)
