Bishop (Latter Day Saints)
Based on Wikipedia: Bishop (Latter Day Saints)
The Bishop Who Ran a Frontier Economy
In February 1831, a hatmaker from Massachusetts named Edward Partridge received an unusual assignment. Joseph Smith, the founder of the young Latter Day Saint movement, called Partridge to become the church's first bishop. But this wasn't the kind of bishop you might picture—no cathedral, no ornate vestments, no centuries of ecclesiastical tradition behind him. Partridge was about to become something more like a communal property manager for a radical religious experiment.
His job? To implement the "law of consecration"—a system where church members would deed their property to the church and receive back what they needed, with the surplus going to help the poor. It was part spiritual calling, part frontier socialism, and Partridge was in charge of making it work.
This origin story reveals something essential about Latter Day Saint bishops that surprises most outsiders: they've never been primarily spiritual figures in the way Catholic or Anglican bishops are. From the very beginning, they've been concerned with the practical, the temporal, the mundane business of keeping a community fed and housed and solvent.
Why "Bishop" Doesn't Mean What You Think
If you've grown up in a Christian tradition, the word "bishop" probably conjures images of purple vestments, tall ceremonial hats called miters, and authority over vast geographical regions containing dozens or hundreds of congregations. Catholic and Orthodox bishops trace their authority through an unbroken chain they call "apostolic succession"—a direct line of ordinations stretching back to the original apostles of Jesus.
Latter Day Saint bishops are something else entirely.
Think of them more like the pastor of a specific neighborhood church, but with additional responsibilities that might remind you of an accountant or a social worker. Each Latter Day Saint bishop presides over a single congregation called a "ward"—typically a few hundred members who live within the same geographical boundaries. They don't wear special clothing. They receive no salary. They hold regular jobs during the week and donate fifteen to twenty-five hours weekly to their church duties. And they serve for a limited time—usually four to seven years—before being "released" and returning to ordinary membership.
This is what scholars call a "lay ministry." There's no separate clerical class, no seminary training required, no professional clergy. The man who baptizes your child on Sunday might install your kitchen cabinets on Monday.
The Priesthood Puzzle
To understand why bishops occupy the position they do, you need to understand Latter Day Saint priesthood structure, which can be bewildering to outsiders.
The Latter Day Saints believe in two priesthoods. The Aaronic priesthood—named after Aaron, the brother of Moses in the Hebrew Bible—is considered the "lesser" priesthood, dealing with temporal matters and preparatory ordinances like baptism. The Melchizedek priesthood—named after the mysterious priest-king who blessed Abraham in Genesis—is the "higher" priesthood, dealing with spiritual governance and sacred rituals.
Here's where it gets interesting: the bishop is technically the highest office in the Aaronic priesthood. Yet almost every bishop is actually a high priest in the Melchizedek priesthood. Why would someone hold an office in the "lesser" priesthood while also belonging to the "higher" one?
The answer reveals the practical evolution of the faith. Bishops need authority to handle both temporal and spiritual matters. A "pure" Aaronic priesthood bishop would lack the authority to conduct certain spiritual functions. So the church ordains bishops as high priests, giving them the full range of priesthood powers, while still maintaining the theological framework that places the bishop's office within the Aaronic priesthood.
There's actually one exception to this rule, buried deep in Latter Day Saint scripture. A direct biological descendant of Aaron—a living Levite with verifiable lineage back to Moses's brother—could serve as bishop without holding the Melchizedek priesthood and without needing counselors. In thousands of wards across the world, no one has ever made this claim in the main Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But in the smaller Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, their Presiding Bishop, W. Kevin Romer, does claim this Aaronic lineage and holds the unique title of "Aaronic High Priest."
What Bishops Actually Do All Week
Let's follow a Latter Day Saint bishop through his duties. It's far more varied than you might expect.
Sunday is the most visible day. The bishop presides over "sacrament meeting," the main worship service. He doesn't deliver a sermon himself every week—instead, he assigns members of the congregation to speak. This is another surprise for visitors: there's no professional preacher. A fifteen-year-old might speak one week, a retired engineer the next. The bishop and his two counselors (together called "the bishopric") conduct the meeting, introduce speakers, and occasionally offer their own brief remarks.
Once a month, nobody is assigned to speak at all. This is "fast and testimony meeting," where members voluntarily stand and share their beliefs. The bishop simply presides, watching the congregation and managing time as people make their way to the microphone.
But the real work happens outside Sunday services.
The bishop conducts interviews. Lots of interviews. Members who want to attend the temple—Latter Day Saint sacred buildings where special ceremonies are performed—must sit down with their bishop for a "temple recommend interview." The bishop asks about their faith, their adherence to church standards like the Word of Wisdom (which prohibits alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea), their financial contributions (the church expects members to tithe ten percent of their income), and their personal moral conduct. If satisfied, the bishop signs a wallet-sized card that grants temple access for two years.
The bishop also meets with members struggling with what the church considers serious sins. He serves as what Latter Day Saint scripture calls a "judge in Israel"—not a punitive figure, but something more like a spiritual counselor and accountability partner helping people through repentance. In extreme cases involving actions the church considers gravely wrong, he may convene a "membership council" that can result in restricted church participation or even removal from church membership.
And then there's the money.
The Bishop as Welfare Administrator
Every month, Latter Day Saints are asked to skip two consecutive meals and donate at least the value of those meals as a "fast offering." This money goes into a fund the bishop controls. When families in the ward face unemployment, unexpected medical bills, or other crises, the bishop can authorize payments directly from this fund. He might pay a month's rent. He might cover utility bills. He might arrange for food from the "bishop's storehouse"—a church-operated food pantry system.
This is one of the most distinctive features of Latter Day Saint organization. There's no distant welfare bureaucracy making these decisions. The bishop—someone who probably knows the struggling family personally, who has sat in their living room, who may have worked alongside them on a community service project—makes the call about what help they need and how to provide it.
Of course, this system's effectiveness depends entirely on the bishop's judgment, empathy, and wisdom. A good bishop can be a lifeline for families in crisis. A poor one can cause real harm through either excessive stinginess or inappropriate prying into family finances. The church provides guidelines, but enormous discretion remains with each bishop.
The Father of the Ward
There's a phrase that captures the bishop's role: "the father of the ward." It's revealing, and not entirely comfortable.
On one hand, it reflects genuine pastoral care. Bishops often know ward members intimately—their struggles, their hopes, their family situations. They visit the sick. They counsel teenagers. They perform the ordinances when converts are baptized. Many members remember a bishop who helped them through the hardest season of their lives.
On the other hand, the paternal framing carries all the complications that word implies. The bishop is almost always male—women cannot hold the priesthood in the main Latter Day Saint church. The bishop exercises real authority over members' lives, determining their worthiness for temple attendance and, in some cases, their standing in the church itself. And like any father, bishops vary wildly in how they use that authority.
The bishop serves with two counselors, chosen from the congregation and called "first counselor" and "second counselor." Together, this bishopric shares many responsibilities, though final authority rests with the bishop himself. In a "singles ward"—a congregation specifically for unmarried young adults—these counselors might be elders rather than high priests, reflecting the demographics of the congregation.
Who Watches the Bishop?
A bishop doesn't operate without oversight. Above him in the organizational hierarchy sits the stake president—roughly equivalent to a regional director overseeing five to twelve wards. The stake president recommends new bishops, provides training, and offers counsel when bishops face difficult situations.
But here's where it gets interesting: the stake president doesn't make the final call on who becomes bishop. That authority rests with the church's First Presidency—the three men who lead the entire worldwide church. Every single one of the thousands of bishops serving across the globe receives a formal written call from the First Presidency. They don't just approve a stake president's recommendation; they officially extend the calling.
Before ordination, there's one more step. The ward members must accept the new bishop through "common consent"—a public vote during a worship service. In practice, this is almost always unanimous, but the principle matters. Latter Day Saints believe that leaders should have the sustaining support of those they lead.
Once ordained, a bishop remains a bishop for life. This doesn't mean he presides over a ward forever—he'll be "released" after several years and someone else will take his place. But the ordination itself is permanent. He can be called to serve as bishop again in a different ward, or never again. Either way, he retains the priesthood office.
The Nauvoo Innovation
When the Latter Day Saints gathered in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the early 1840s, they introduced an organizational innovation that shapes the church to this day. The growing city was divided into three geographical areas—the Upper Ward, the Middle Ward, and the Lower Ward—each with its own bishop.
Edward Partridge, that original hatmaker-turned-bishop, presided over the Upper Ward. Newel K. Whitney took the Middle Ward. Vinson Knight handled the Lower Ward. For the first time, bishops were tied to specific geographical congregations rather than serving as financial officers for the entire church.
This ward system proved so practical that it persists today. Move to a new neighborhood, and you automatically belong to a new ward with a new bishop. Your congregation isn't chosen by preference or affinity—it's assigned by address. There's no church-shopping, no seeking out a congregation that matches your style. You worship with your neighbors.
After Joseph Smith
When Joseph Smith was killed by a mob in 1844, the Latter Day Saint movement fractured into multiple denominations. Different groups took the concept of bishop in different directions.
The largest denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called the LDS Church or, by members, simply "the Church"), developed the bishop-as-ward-pastor model described throughout this essay. Above the ward bishops sits a "Presiding Bishop" who oversees the church's worldwide temporal affairs—welfare programs, physical facilities, and financial administration.
For a fascinating period in Utah Territory, the church also used "traveling bishops"—men without fixed congregations who journeyed from ward to ward handling temporal matters. Think of them as auditors or consultants, ensuring consistent financial practices across far-flung frontier settlements. This practice faded by the 1880s.
Community of Christ, the second-largest Latter Day Saint denomination (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), took a different path. Their bishops remain primarily financial officers rather than congregational pastors. A bishop in Community of Christ might oversee the finances for an entire "mission center"—a region containing many congregations—rather than presiding over a single ward. They're ministers of stewardship, handling money and property, while pastors handle the spiritual leadership of local congregations.
This difference reveals something important about religious evolution. The same original office, created by Joseph Smith in 1831, branched into genuinely different roles when communities interpreted their heritage differently.
Branches and Branch Presidents
Not every Latter Day Saint congregation is large enough to be called a ward. Smaller congregations—perhaps in remote areas, new missionary territories, or places where the church is just getting established—are called branches. A branch is typically led by a "branch president" rather than a bishop.
The practical differences are real but subtle. A branch president doesn't need to be ordained a bishop; he doesn't need to be a high priest. In rare cases where no Melchizedek priesthood holder is available, even a priest in the Aaronic priesthood can serve as branch president. This flexibility lets the church function in places where its presence is thin.
But the responsibilities are essentially identical. The branch president conducts interviews, oversees finances, presides at worship services, and counsels members—everything a bishop does, just with a different title and slightly different priesthood requirements.
Living the Calling
Consider what it means to be called as a bishop. You're a member of a ward—perhaps you've been the Sunday School teacher, or you've led the youth program, or you've just been quietly attending for years. One day, the stake president asks to meet with you. He extends a calling that will reshape your life for the next several years.
You'll now spend fifteen to twenty-five hours each week—on top of your regular job and family obligations—on church duties. You'll counsel teenagers struggling with faith. You'll sign welfare checks for families facing eviction. You'll interview every member who wants a temple recommend. You'll sit through meetings about the condition of the building, the needs of the widow on Maple Street, the young man who wants to serve a mission.
You won't be paid a cent for any of this.
Your counselors will help—you'll have a first and second counselor forming your bishopric—but the final responsibility is yours. When a family's marriage is falling apart at 2 a.m., they might call you. When someone confesses something that troubles their conscience, you're the one who hears it.
And then, after four or five or seven years, you'll be released. Someone else will receive the calling. You'll return to ordinary ward membership, perhaps teaching Sunday School again, carrying the perspective of someone who has seen the congregation from every angle.
This rotation keeps the lay ministry fresh. No bishop serves long enough to become entrenched or to treat the position as personal property. The man who presides over you today sat in your pew five years ago and will sit there again five years hence. It's a remarkably egalitarian approach to religious authority, even as it maintains genuine hierarchical structure.
The Invisible Infrastructure
What Edward Partridge started in 1831—managing the temporal affairs of a small religious community—has grown into a worldwide system. Tens of thousands of bishops serve across dozens of countries, each one unpaid, each one serving for a season, each one responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of a few hundred neighbors.
It's an infrastructure that remains largely invisible to outsiders. The missionaries who knock on doors are famous. The temples that dot the landscape draw attention. But the bishops, working quietly in meetinghouse offices on weekday evenings and Sunday afternoons, rarely enter public consciousness.
Yet they represent something significant about how the Latter Day Saint movement organized itself from its earliest days: a commitment to lay participation, to geographical community, to the idea that caring for souls and counting contributions are not separate spiritual matters but deeply interconnected. The bishop who helps you repent is the same bishop who helps you pay rent. The sacred and the practical meet in the same office, served by the same unpaid volunteer, week after week, year after year.
That original hatmaker from Massachusetts would recognize the basic pattern. The scale has changed beyond anything he could have imagined—from a few dozen frontier believers to a global church of seventeen million members. But the bishop remains what Edward Partridge became in that February of 1831: someone called to care for a community in all its dimensions, spiritual and temporal, eternal and utterly mundane.