Gadfield Elm Chapel
The Gadfield Elm Chapel near the village of Pendock in Worcestershire, England, is the oldest extant chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
The structure was built in 1836 as a religious meetinghouse by the United Brethren, a group of breakaway Primitive Methodists led by Thomas Knighton. In 1840, Latter Day Saint missionary and apostle Wilford Woodruff preached among the United Brethren; ultimately all but one of the 600 members of the United Brethren were converted to Mormonism. After the conversions, the structure was deeded to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Knighton and John Benbow.
As a chapel of the early Latter Day Saint movement, the building was a centre of activity for the church in the Malvern Hills area. Several regional conferences of the church were held in the chapel, and Brigham Young, who at the time was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke there at least once. The chapel was sold by the church in 1842 to help fund the emigration of British Latter Day Saints to America.
The building was privately owned until it was purchased in 1994 by the Gadfield Elm Trust, a group of LDS Church members interested in preserving the chapel. The Trust renovated and restored the chapel, and it was dedicated by LDS Church apostle Jeffrey R. Holland on 23 April 2000.
In 2004, the Gadfield Elm Trust donated ownership of the chapel to the LDS Church, and it was rededicated by church president Gordon B. Hinckley on 26 May 2004. The chapel is operated as a historical tourist site by the LDS Church and admission to the public is free.
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Gadfield Elm Chapel — official website
- Gadfield Elm — Mormon Historic Sites Registry, Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
- Gadfield Elm — blog about Gadfield Elm by Andrew Mason
- Gadfield Elm blog — collection of personal stories and media about Gadfield Elm[clarification needed]
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- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2015
- 19th-century Latter Day Saint church buildings
- 19th-century Methodist church buildings
- Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
- Churches in Worcestershire
- History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- History of the Latter Day Saint movement
- Meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Methodist churches in Worcestershire
- Churches completed in 1836
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England