True Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)

True Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)
Classification	Latter Day Saint movement
Orientation	Latter Day Saints
Polity	Defunct as of 1969
Moderator	Defunct
Region	United States
Founder	Clyde Fletcher
Origin	Founded in 1953 Clitherall, Minnesota
Separated from	Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)
Congregations	Defunct
Members	Fewer than 10

The True Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) was a small Latter Day Saint faction which split from the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) in 1953 under its founder, Clyde Fletcher, and continued to exist until Fletcher's death in 1969. It was situated in Clitherall, Minnesota—the location of its one and only branch—and remained identical to its parent organization in all respects save leadership. Following Fletcher's death, his few remaining adherents elected to reunite with the main Cutlerite body, and this sect ceased to exist.

The True Church of Jesus Christ originated from a schism between the two existing congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ in 1953, following the death of church president Emory Fletcher. Though precipitaed by a dispute over who should succeed Fletcher in the presidential office, the division was exacerbated by the differing conditions under which each congregation had operated during the first half of the twentieth century. Prior to 1920, there had only been one Cutlerite congregation, located in Clitherall. However, during the early 1920s, a majority of the Cutlerite congregation elected to relocate to Independence, Missouri near the Temple Lot, where they purchased land and erected a building which became their new church headquarters. Independence was an urban environment, in sharp contrast to rural Clitherall.

According to Rupert Fletcher, president of the Cutlerite church from 1958 to 1974 and author of Alpheus Cutler and the Church of Jesus Christ, the schism that led to the founding of Clyde Fletcher's church was precipitated by what he called "the lack of communication and a wide difference in environment." Whereas the Minnesota congregation were primarily "members of a rural society, engaged in agrarian pursuits," the Missouri members lived and worked "in an urban community." "The problems and needs of each have little in common with the other", wrote Fletcher, and this had often "caused disunity."

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