Editing Doctrine and Covenants (section)

==Community of Christ editions==
Officials of the [[Community of Christ]] (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [RLDS Church]) first published an edition of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1864, based on the previous 1844 edition. A [[World Conference (Community of Christ)|general conference]] of the church in 1878 approved a resolution that declared that the revelations of the [[President of the Church|Prophet-President]] [[Joseph Smith III]] had equal standing to those previously included in the work. Since that time, the church has continued to add sections to its edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, containing the revelations of succeeding Prophet-Presidents. The most recent addition was formally authorized on April 14, 2010, after being presented to the church for informal consideration on January 17, 2010. The numbers of the sections and versification differ from the edition published by the LDS Church and both modern editions differ from the original 1835 edition numeration.

===Sections added to the Community of Christ edition===
The 167 sections of the Community of Christ's Doctrine and Covenants break down as follows:
*Sections 1–113 (includes 108A): From the presidency of [[Joseph Smith]] (1828–44)
*Sections 114–131: From the presidency of [[Joseph Smith III]] (1860–1914)
*Sections 132–138: From the presidency of [[Frederick M. Smith]] (1914–46)
*Sections 139–144: From the presidency of [[Israel A. Smith]] (1946–58)
*Sections 145–152 (includes 149A): From the presidency of [[W. Wallace Smith]] (1958–78)
*Sections 153–160: From the presidency of [[Wallace B. Smith]] (1978–96)
*Sections 161–162: From the presidency of [[W. Grant McMurray]] (1996–2004)
*Sections 163–165: From the presidency of [[Stephen M. Veazey]] (2005–)

The following sections are not revelations, but letters, reports, statements, and other similar documents: 99, 108A, 109–113, and 123.

Based on the above, the number of revelations (accounting for sections that are not revelations) presented by each Community of Christ president, are as follows:

*Joseph Smith: 107
*Joseph Smith III: 17
*Frederick M. Smith: 7
*Israel A. Smith: 6
*W. Wallace Smith: 9
*Wallace B. Smith: 8
*W. Grant McMurray: 2
*Stephen M. Veazey: 3

===Portions removed from the Community of Christ edition===
The Community of Christ removed the "Lectures on Faith" in 1897. The 1970 [[World Conference (Community of Christ)|World Conference]] concluded that several sections that had been added between the 1835 and 1844 editions—mainly dealing with the subjects of [[Temple (Latter Day Saints)|temple worship]] and [[baptism for the dead]]—had been published without proper approval of a church conference. As a result, the World Conference removed sections 107, 109, 110, 113, and 123 to a historical appendix, which also includes documents that were never published as sections. Of these, only section 107 was a revelation. The World Conference of 1990 subsequently removed the entire appendix from the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 108A contained the minutes of a business meeting, which, because of its historical nature, was moved to the Introduction in the 1970s. After 1990, the Introduction was updated, and what was section 108A was removed entirely.

====Developments in 2023 and 2024====

A proposal to decanonize [[s:en:The Doctrine and Covenants (1922 RLDS)/Section 116|section 116]] and move it to historical records was debated at the 2023 World Conference, which voted to refer the issue to the First Presidency. Section 116 had been received by Joseph Smith III in 1865, shortly after the conclusion of the [[American Civil War]], and stipulates that men of all ethnic backgrounds should be ordained (contrast the [[Black people and the LDS priesthood|LDS Church policy at the time forbidding Black ordination]]), but hedges this with caution against taking a "hasty" or indiscriminate attitude in ordination of men of the "Negro race", noting that many of the existing priesthood holders had failed to adequately fulfill their responsibilities.<ref name="septemberoctobersection116">{{cite magazine |page=11–12 |title=Conversations about removing Section 116 from Doctrine and Covenants |volume=171 |issue=September/October 2024 |magazine=Community of Christ Herald |publisher=[[Herald House]]}}</ref> After consulting with Black priesthood members, the First Presidency decided to retain it, so as not to appear to be sanitising the church's history.<ref name="julyaugustsection116">{{cite magazine |page=7 |title=World Conference resolutions update |volume=171 |issue=July/August 2024 |magazine=Community of Christ Herald |publisher=[[Herald House]]}}</ref>

The Diversity and Inclusion team and the Church History and Sacred Story team were opposed to removing the section, arguing that it represented an important historical step towards inclusivity. The Church History and Sacred Story team, moreover, opined that the removal of sections 107, 109, 110, 113, and 123 had been a "mistake" based on "naive misunderstandings" of scripture and revelation, arguing that many other scriptural texts contain sexist, racist and violent language as a result of the backgrounds and biases of the writers, and that responsible interpretation of scripture needs to take this into account when seeking to discern God's will.<ref name="septemberoctobersection116"/>

The outcome of the process was a rewritten section preface, giving better historical context and stipulating the overarching interpretation "to ordain people of all ethnicities while emphasizing careful discernment of calling, commitment and timing (compare to 156:9d)", and a minor re-versification, making the closing sentence ("Be ye content, I the Lord have spoken it.") a separate verse (D&C 116:5) to more accurately reflect the paragraph breaks in the earliest manuscripts of the section, and clarify that it applies to the section as a whole, rather than specifically to the caution against "hasty" ordination.<ref name="septemberoctobersection116"/>

===Doctrinal developments in the Community of Christ edition===
The ongoing additions to the Community of Christ edition provide a record of the leadership changes and doctrinal developments within the denomination. When W. Grant McMurray became Prophet-President, he declared that instruction specific to leadership changes would no longer be included, so that the focus of the work could be more doctrinal in nature, and less administrative. The record of these leadership changes are still maintained in the form of published "letters of counsel." Prophet-President Stephen M. Veazey has conformed to this pattern. Although these letters are not formally published in the Doctrine and Covenants, they are still deemed to be inspired, and are dealt with in the same manner that revelations are (that is, they must be deliberated and approved by the voting members of a World Conference).

A modern revelation that resulted in some "disaffection" and "led to intense conflict in scattered areas of the RLDS Church"<ref>{{citation |last= Howard |first= Richard P. |author-link= Richard P. Howard |contribution-url= http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/4127 |contribution= Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) |pages= 1211–1216 |editor-last= Ludlow |editor-first= Daniel H |editor-link= Daniel H. Ludlow |year= 1992 |title= [[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]] |location= New York |publisher= [[Macmillan Publishing]] |isbn= 0-02-879602-0 |oclc= 24502140 }}</ref>{{rp|1211}} is contained in the Community of Christ version's section 156, presented by Prophet–President Wallace B. Smith and added in 1984, which called for the [[ordination of women]] to the priesthood and set out the primary purpose of [[temple (Latter Day Saints)|temples]] to be "the pursuit of peace".<ref>[http://www.centerplace.org/library/study/dc/rdc-156.htm D&C Section 156].</ref> A resulting schism over the legitimacy of these change led to the formation of the [[Restoration Branches]] movement, the [[Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]] and the [[Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]].

While some of the prose in the new revelations seems designed to guide the denomination on matters of church governance and doctrine, others are seen as inspirational. One such example can be cited from section 161, presented as counsel to the church by [[W. Grant McMurray]] in 1996: "Become a people of the Temple—those who see violence but proclaim peace, who feel conflict yet extend the hand of reconciliation, who encounter broken spirits and find pathways for healing."