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2004 Conference Report

Our 32nd annual conference this September 23-26th was a rousing success, despite a last minute change of venue from the Council Bluffs Ramada to the West Omaha Days Hotel.

At our presidential banquet, JWHA presented the best student paper award to David J. Howlett of the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Dan Vogel received the best book award for his excellent and controversial new study of the Restoration's founder, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. Two-time past-president Alma Blair was honored with JWHA's third ever Lifetime Achievement Award.

Outgoing President Mark A. Scherer in his address to the conference outlined the difficult path of a church historian in "Neither Apologist nor Cynic: Filling the Gap and Keeping the Theologians Honest." Mark also spelled out his vision for the continued growth and professionalization of JWHA and called for several bold new initiatives, including the creation of a "University of Nauvoo" acredited summer semester program for graduate students.

Highlights from our plenary sessions included our Sterling M. McMurrin Lecturer Richard T. Hughes and his thought-provoking comparisons between the concepts underlying the Latter Day Saint Restoration and other Restoration traditions, from Anabaptists to America's founding fathers.

Distinguished senior scholar Klaus Hansen recalled the events that led to the publication of his influential work, Quest for Empire, and foreshadowed the direction he will take in its upcoming revision and republication.

Dan Vogel, author of Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet, addressed a panel of critics composed of two Rocky Mountain Saints (Grant Underwood and Scott Faulring) and one Prairie Saint (Paul Edwards). The session included much participation from the audience, including responses from Bill Russell, Mark Scherer and Klaus Hansen.

John Hamer and Barbara Bernauer addressed the conference theme by examining gatherings of the Restoration movement as "Places of Decision." John produced an extensive new series of maps that discussed the subject from the macro-level, while Barbara's detailed study of the Galland's Grove branch in Southwestern Iowa addressed the theme at the level of microcosm.

Our final plenary session saw three pioneers in church education in the Community of Christ revisit their role in the church's transformation. Richard Lancaster, Don Landon and Lloyed Young offered moving retrospectives of that momentous period in the recent history of the Reorganization.

Dozens of other excellent papers were presented in what was certainly one of JWHA's most successful conferences to date.

The conference was capped by a homily at the multi-faith worship service delivered by Community of Christ President W. Grant McMurray. Grant addressed the conference theme in a piece entitled "Human Feet on Holy Ground" which compared and contrasted the ways in which Rocky Mountain Saints and Prairie Saints have come to view "Holy Ground."