A History of Mormon Prayer Circles

It’s been two generations since LDS prayer circles were cast out of the world and relegated to temple-ritual status. Its members-only status ironically has robbed the prayer circle of the spontaneity, or even eccentricity, that it once enjoyed. Almost nine score years ago, the original prayer circles organized by LDS Church founder Joseph Smith underscored the early 19th century personal-relationship-with-God theological progressiveness that shaped Mormonism. As D. Michael Quinn related in the Fall, 1978, issue of Brigham Young University Studies, the first prayer circle, part of the 1833 School of the Prophets, imitated the protestant prayer rings. Quinn writes that participants sought visions of angels, and when that wish was granted, some shrank in fear at what their eyes beheld.