There is nothing novel about this LDS chapel except its location

Colorado City, Ariz. • On its face, a new Latter-day Saint chapel rising along the border of the Beehive State hardly seems like news.

After all, it looks like many a meetinghouse built by the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — soaring steeple, adjacent parking and a “visitors welcome” sign outside; kitchen, gymnasium and classrooms inside.

But this 16,370-square-foot building, nonetheless, marks a major milestone for the global religion. The reason: location, location, location.

When it opens in a few weeks in Colorado City, Arizona, it will be the faith’s first in an area once known as Short Creek, which, along with its twin town of Hildale, Utah, was formerly dominated by the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

That means members of the Salt Lake City-headquartered faith will no longer have to make a 50-mile round trip to worship. The new chapel is projected to cut members’ current drive time in half.

“Having a building of our own is something that our congregation has been looking forward to for a long time,” said Amy Alkema, a member of the Apple Valley Ward that now meets in Hurricane.

Fellow ward member Lisa Farr is equally ecstatic at the prospect of not having to make the weekly commute on the winding road to and from Hurricane each Sunday, parts of which she says are dangerous.

“For many of us in our ward, it’s a financial challenge to make that far of a drive to attend church in … Hurricane," she said. “So we are glad we will soon not have to do that.”

Construction on the new meetinghouse, sited south of Mohave Community College on 5 acres near 600 S. Central St., is expected to wrap up later this month or early next. Framed on the east by majestic Canaan Mountain, the building will be the new spiritual home for 700-plus ward members in Colorado City, Hildale, Centennial Park and Cane Beds in addition to Apple Valley.

According to church officials, the building can accommodate multiple 250-member wards, more than enough for the 225 Apple Valley Ward members who regularly attend Sunday services. That’s important because two wards could soon be meeting there. Alkema said local lay leaders have already put members on notice that they intend to split the congregation into two wards shortly after the new chapel opens.

Polygamy and membership purges

Asked why it has taken so long to get a Latter-day Saint chapel, members and nonmembers alike point to the area’s polygamous past. Short Creek was largely settled in the 1930s by so-called fundamentalists who refused to abandon plural marriage when the Salt Lake City-based faith gave up the practice.

As a result, locals say, most Short Creek residents were excommunicated, and polygamy remained a mainstay in the region.

Homes and businesses in Colorado City and Hildale were once part of the United Effort Plan, a trust the FLDS formed in 1942. In response to disgraced FLDS leader Warren Jeffs’ sex crimes and misuse of trust money, they explain, Utah seized the trust and the properties were sold.

A decade later, many FLDS allege the UEP stole the church’s properties. They grieve the loss, for instance, of the FLDS Leroy S. Johnson Meetinghouse in Colorado City, which is being repurposed as a community center. Locals say FLDS members are now relegated to worshipping at home if at all.

“It is hurtful to many FLDS members that their church was seized by the UEP, so there is a lot of cultural pain there,” said Christine Marie, founder and former director of Voices for Dignity, a nonprofit dedicated to helping and empowering marginalized populations.

While she is not angry about the inroads Latter-day Saints are making in the area, Colorado City resident Norma Richter is struck by the irony.

“It is ironic,” said Richter, who is FLDS, “because [Latter-day Saint leaders] came out in the 1930s and excommunicated anyone that had anything to do with the way of life we lived and shunned us for years and years.”

Fewer and fewer polygamists

Still, civic leaders are determined not to let that past become a prologue. They note a lot has changed over the past 15 years. Jeffs, for example, was convicted in 2011 of assaulting two underage girls, whom he took as polygamous wives, and remains in a Texas prison. In addition, most staunch FLDS members have fled to Cedar City and other communities across the West.

By her reckoning, Marie estimates FLDS members now comprise between 5% and 7% of Colorado City’s population and less than 3% of Hildale’s. Accompanying the differing demographic is a change in attitude toward Latter-day Saints and their global faith of 17.5 million.

Colorado City Mayor Howard Ream said the new chapel will be a religious balm to the area.

“There’s been a lot of hurt and a lot of damage, and we need to have healing,” Ream said. “In order to do that, we have to be able to make choices for ourselves that are healthy. … Christian churches and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are needed to cure that.”

Hildale Mayor Donia Jessop agrees, noting Latter-day Saints already contribute to the community through service projects like sprucing up Maxwell Park.

“They have been really great to work with,” said Jessop, a former FLDS member. “So I’m excited that they are here and that we have that diversity in our community.”

Alkema, who serves in the children’s Primary presidency of the Hurricane Latter-day Saint regional stake, said a vocal few have expressed opposition to the chapel.

“I understand it is coming from people who used to be FLDS and have been rightly traumatized by Warren Jeffs and the leadership,” she said. “They don’t feel that they need any more churches in their area.”

Aside from not having a long-distance commute to church, Alkema is excited about members having their own building for youth and other activities during the week. Ward leaders will no longer have to borrow or rent buildings in town to host such activities.

Letting go of the past, rebranding for the future

Though not a Latter-day Saint, Martha LeBaron, a marketing specialist and vice chair of the UZONA Chamber of Commerce, welcomes the new meetinghouse.

“We are all working together to rebrand our community and see it thrive,” LeBaron said. “We are trying to promote more economic growth, and encourage more businesses and families to come here.”

Building community is also important to Apple Valley Ward bishop Darin Chipman, who has noticed an influx of newcomers attracted to the area’s cheaper rental housing. He also said some FLDS who left have returned, some of whom have been baptized or expressed interest in the Salt Lake City-based church.

Whatever one’s faith journey, ward members say, all are welcome.

“We want to be inclusive and open to anyone who wants to join us,” Chipman said. “We want to be a part of the community and help build a great community.”