Evangelist (Latter Day Saints)

In the Latter Day Saint movement, an evangelist is an ordained office of the ministry. In some denominations of the movement, an evangelist is referred to as a patriarch. However, the latter term was deprecated by the Community of Christ after the church began ordaining women to the priesthood. Other denominations, such as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), have an evangelist position independent of the original "patriarch" office instituted movement founder Joseph Smith.

The first references to the term "evangelist" in Latter Day Saint theology were mainly consistent with how the term is used by Protestants and Catholics.

In 1833, Joseph Smith introduced the new office of Patriarch, to which he ordained his father. The elder Smith was given the "keys of the patriarchal Priesthood over the kingdom of God on earth", the same power said to be held by the Biblical Patriarchs, which included the power to give blessings upon one's posterity. The elder Smith, however, was also called to give patriarchal blessings to the fatherless within the church, and the church as a whole, a calling he passed onto his eldest surviving son Hyrum Smith prior to his death. Hyrum himself was killed in 1844 along with Joseph, resulting in a succession crisis that broke the Latter Day Saint movement into multiple denominations.

It is not known who first identified the term "evangelist" with the office of patriarch. However, in an 1835 church publication, W. W. Phelps stated,

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