The ''Mormon Miracle Pageant'' was a Latter-day Saint pageant held in

Manti, Utah Manti ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sanpete County, Utah, Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,429 at the 2020 United States Census. Description Manti was the first community in Utah to be settled outside the Wasa ...

, until it was discontinued in 2019. An annual outdoor

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communic ...

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

, it was produced by an amateur cast of over five hundred members of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church). The nightly program took place on the south lawn of temple hill at the

Manti Temple The Manti Utah Temple (formerly the Manti Temple) is the fifth constructed temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The temple construction was completed in 1888. Located in the city of Manti, Utah, it was the third Latter-day ...

, usually in June. The two-week pageant would typically draw an average of 15,000 people per night over an eight-night performance. The 2019 pageant was the final full-scale event of its type, as part of a church-wide directive to make church events more focused on home and family and discourage all large-scale productions.

Content

For LDS Church members, the pageant was a faith-promoting family event. The pageant portrayed the relationship and chronology of three separate, but related, faith-promoting accounts. Opening with the experiences of the church's first

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thou ...

, during his young-adulthood in the

burned-over district The term "burned-over district" refers to the western and parts of the central regions of New York State in the early 19th century, where religious revivals and the formation of new religious movements of the Second Great Awakening took place ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in the 1820s. Including the recovery and translation of the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith as ''The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi''. The book is one of ...

, the restoration of the "Church of Christ" in 1830 (which was renamed "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" in 1838) and its infancy, and the death of Smith in 1844. During the dramatization of the translation of the Book of Mormon an overview of its contents it presented. The wars and contentions of the native

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

inhabitants of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

are represented, along with their teachings of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, leading to his post-

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

appearance in the first century A.D. The pageant concludes with the persecution of the

Mormon pioneer The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...

s in the East and their subsequent exodus to

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, led by the church's second president,

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

, and the group of pioneers sent to central Utah (now

Sanpete Valley Sanpete County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 28,437. Its county seat is Manti, and its largest city is Ephraim. The county was created in 1850. History The Sanpete Valley m ...

), where the Manti Utah Temple stands. The performance began shortly after sunset, during the early summer (usually late June), with people often arriving several hours before the performance. In addition to restaurants in the town, there were special food stands for the event. Light security was provided at the performance site and the surrounding streets to ensure general order and to direct traffic.

History

The pageant was first produced by the Manti Utah

Stake A stake is a large wooden or metal implement designed to be driven into the ground and may refer to: Tools * Archer's stake, a defensive stake carried by medieval longbowmen * Survey stakes, markers used by surveyors * Sudis (stake) (Latin for ...

in 1967 under the leadership of

stake president A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name "stake" derives from the Book of Isaiah: "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine ha ...

Vernon Kunz. Helen and Morgan Dyreng of Manti, parents of past Young Women General President Margaret D. Nadauld, directed the production. Duane and Martha Ryan were the narrators. Although simple and unpolished in comparison to the pageant in later years, the performance was accompanied by a 25-piece orchestra. The original music directors were McLoyd Erickson, Harry A. Dean, and Evan Bean. Among the orchestra members was

Richard Nibley Fred Richard Nibley (April 29, 1913 – September 22, 1979) was an American violinist, composer, and educator. He is often cited as an expert on the influence of music on behavior. Richard spent many years as a professor at Snow College in Ephraim ...

(brother of

Hugh Nibley Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American scholar and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for nearly 50 years. He was a prolif ...

), who had trained most of the rest of the musical group. The original script was based on the 1950 book ''The Mormon Miracle'' written by Grace Leora Johnson.

Pageant evangelists and protesters

There were usually several

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Christian church groups, who would attempt to

proselytize Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Carrying out attempts to instill beliefs can be called proselytization. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between Chris ...

the largely Latter-day Saint attendees prior to the nightly event. These evangelists would typically hand out

anti-Mormon Anti-Mormonism refers to individuals, literature and media that are opposed to the beliefs, adherents, or institutions of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement as a whole. It may include hostility, prejudice, discrimination, persecution, ...

(or pro-

Evangelicalism Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

) literature and engage pageant-goers in religious discussion as they would approach the site.Bean, Kent R. (2005). ''Policing the Borders of Identity at the'' Mormon Miracle Pageant. Doctoral Dissertation. Bowling Green State Universit

/ref> Some evangelists would carry picket signs and wear "overtly anti-Mormon t-shirts." In addition, some local " Mormon fundamentalism, fundamentalist Mormon" groups were known to carry picket signs in the approach area, criticizing the LDS Church's position on

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

and

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

; the LDS Church abandoned the practice of polygamy in the 19th century, and believes that abortion should be allowed only in rare cases, such as rape or incest."Abortion"
''Church Handbook''. Retrieved on 24 March 2020.

Content

History

Pageant evangelists and protesters

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links