F. Henry Edwards

Francis Henry Edwards (4 August 1897 – 1 December 1991) was a British leader in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). Edwards was an apostle and a member of the church's Council of Twelve Apostles from 1922 to 1946 and was a member of the First Presidency from 1946 to 1966.

Early life and imprisonment

Edwards was born to a Latter Day Saint family in Birmingham, England.[1] During the First World War Edwards, as a conscientious objector, refused to serve in the British military when conscripted. Having been denied recognition by his local Military Service Tribunal, he was arrested, brought before the Magistrates' Court and handed over to the army. At a court-martial in Worcester on 21 December 1916 he was sentenced to 112 days imprisonment with hard labour, which he served in Wormwood Scrubs. On release back to the army he was sentenced to a longer term, but was finally released in 1919 after having spent over two years in prison.[2]

RLDS Church leadership

Edwards immigrated to the United States to join the main gathering of RLDS Church members in Iowa and became a full-time missionary in 1920.[1] On 13 October 1922, RLDS Church president Frederick M. Smith selected Edwards as an apostle of the church.[3] Upon joining the Council of Twelve Apostles, he was selected as the organization's secretary.[1]

Frederick Smith died in 1946 and his brother Israel A. Smith was selected to succeed him. Israel Smith chose John F. Garver and Edwards as his counselors in the First Presidency.[4] When Smith died in 1958 and was succeeded by his younger brother W. Wallace Smith, Edwards was retained as a member of the First Presidency.[5] On 18 April 1966, Edwards was honorably released from membership in the First Presidency and replaced by Duane E. Couey.[6] At this time, Edwards was officially encouraged to "pursu[e] his talents of writing and teaching".[6]

Author and editor

In 1938, Edwards published the first edition of his Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, a resource that was updated and republished throughout Edwards's life and is still used today in the Community of Christ in studies of the church's Doctrine and Covenants.[1] From 1967 to 1976, Edwards updated the History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to include material from 1896 to 1976, which comprises volumes 5 through 8 of the work.[1]

Family and personal life

On 27 June 1924, Edwards married Alice Smith, a daughter of RLDS Church president Frederick M. Smith.[1] In 1938, Edwards became a citizen of the United States.[1] Edwards attended Graceland University, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri–Kansas City.[1] Today at Graceland University, there is a F. Henry Edwards Chair of Religious Studies.

Publications

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Paul M. Edwards (1995). F. Henry Edwards: Articulator of the Church (Independence, Mo.: Herald House) ISBN 0-8309-0704-1.
  2. ↑ Andrew Bolton, "A New Peace Church"? at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2003), Fellowship: A Magazine of Peacemaking, May–June 2003. Bolton claims, with no source cited, that Edwards was sentenced to death, with the sentence commuted. However, the report of Edwards' court-martial in the Catherine Marshall Archive, Cumbria Record Office, ref D/Mar/4/97, does not corroborate this. The 35 British conscientious objectors who were sentenced to death were all sentenced in June 1916, five months prior to Edwards' arrest in about November 1916. The 35 were also sentenced in France, and there is no record of Edwards ever having been taken to France by the military; Edwards also does not appear in the list of the 35 conscientious objectors sentenced to death. For a brief account of the death sentences episode, with five of the conscientious objectors named, see ppu.org; for a fuller account, with 16 of the individuals named, see Will Ellsworth-Jones: We Will Not Fight, Aurum, 2008; for the complete list of the conscientious objectors sentenced to death, see the interactive CD Voices for Peace, obtainable from the ppu.org.
  3. ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 134:3.
  4. ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 139:1.
  5. ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 145:2.
  6. 1 2 Doctrine and Covenants 148:1–2.
Community of Christ titles
Preceded by
Israel A. Smith
Lemuel F.P. Curry		 Counselor in the First Presidency
April 9, 1946–April 18, 1966 		Succeeded by
Duane E. Couey
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