Week 11 Lab: Splintering Never Stopped

The Reorganization's own 1980s schism over women's ordination, and present-day independence groups

3 May 2027

Before the lab#

Read about the Reorganization’s 1984 decision to ordain women, and the “Restoration branches” that split off in response — the same church that itself began as a splinter group in 1860.

In the lab#

The framework doesn’t stop applying once a group settles down: a doctrinal change creates a fresh vacuum for people who considered the earlier position part of what made the Reorganization legitimate, and a new set of independence groups forms in response. We also look briefly at present-day independent fundamentalist groups, to confirm the pattern is still live rather than a nineteenth-century artefact.

Afterwards#

Bring your final project map draft, even rough, to the last lab.