Mormon Tabernacle Choir renamed in major church shift
SALT LAKE CITY The well-known Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been renamed to strip out the word Mormon in a move showing the faith’s new president is serious about ending shorthand names for the religion that have been used for generations by church members and previously promoted by the church.
The gospel singing group will now be called the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. It’s a nod to the home of the choir for the past 150 years, the Tabernacle, located on church grounds known as Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
Church president Russell M. Nelson announced guidelines in August requesting that people stop using “Mormon” or “LDS” as substitutes for the church’s full name. He said “Latter-day Saints” was acceptable shorthand.
The faith’s beliefs say the full church name was given by revelation from God to founder Joseph Smith in 1838. The term Mormon comes from the faith’s signature scripture, the Book of Mormon, which is based on the record keeping of an ancient prophet named Mormon, the faith believes.
A church webpage about the term Mormon that was up before Nelson’s August announcement describes the term as an “unofficial but inoffensive nickname for members.”
But Nelson, in his statement earlier this year, urged people not to use Mormon or LDS, saying, the “Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name he has revealed for his church.”
Speaking in Canada after his August announcement, Nelson acknowledged that it would be a “challenge to undo tradition of more than 100 years” but notes in a video posted on a church website that the name of the faith is “not negotiable.”
He said church members need to use the proper name if they want outsiders to use it.
“We’re not changing names. We’re correcting a name,” Nelson says in the video. “Some marketers change names hoping to be more successful — that’s not our point. We’re correcting an error that’s crept in over the ages.”
In a different video from the trip, Nelson says, “It’s not Mormon’s church, it’s not Moses’ church, it’s the church of Jesus Christ.”
The name change will be a big effort for the Utah-based faith that counts 16-million members worldwide. The renaming of the choir is the first step with many changes still to come. The church still uses Mormon in its Twitter handle.
The faith’s presidents are considered prophets who lead through revelation from God. Nelson, 94, took the post in January when the previous president died.
The choir renaming came as Nelson and other Mormon leaders gathered to provide spiritual guidance and deliver church news at a twice-yearly weekend conference in Salt Lake City attended by nearly 100,000 people and watched by hundreds of thousands of others on TV and online.
The choir of about 360 men and women sings at the conferences and has performed worldwide and at inaugurations of U.S. presidents, including President Donald Trump.
It had been known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir since 1929 when the group began broadcasting its weekly radio program.
Choir president Ron Jarrett called the name change an exciting opportunity for the choir to start a new chapter that aligns the group with Nelson’s request. He said the choir’s website and social media pages will be updated to reflect the new name.
“It is a huge brand for the church. It’s been there for a long time, and people recognize it,” Jarrett said. “I don’t think we’ll lose people. In fact, we may even gain listeners.”
The faith previously embraced and promoted the term Mormon, including with a 2014 documentary about its members called Meet the Mormons. The church ran a series of “I’m a Mormon” ads on TV and billboards starting in 2010, aiming to dispel stereotypes by telling the stories of individual members.
The church tried once before to insist on the use of its full name — in 2001 ahead of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The new effort says Mormon, Mormonism and LDS aren’t acceptable.
Paula Froke, lead editor for The Associated Press Stylebook, which many news outlets and others follow, said the news organization is aware of the church’s guidelines. She said AP is monitoring how the names evolve in the church itself — including among members — and with the public.
For now, the AP Stylebook entry about the faith remains unchanged.
“Clearly, the term Mormon is deeply ingrained, both in the church and in the minds of the general public,” Froke said.