SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The well-known Mormon Tabernacle Choir was renamed Oct. 5 to strip out the word Mormon in a move showing the church’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 religious singing group will now be called the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement. It’s a nod to the home of the choir for the last 150 years, the Tabernacle, located on church grounds known as Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
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 full church name was given by revelation from God to founder Joseph Smith in 1838, according to the faith’s beliefs. The term Mormon comes from the Book of Mormon, which is based on the record keeping of an ancient prophet named Mormon.
A church webpage about the term Mormon that was up before President Nelson’s August announcement describes the term as an “unofficial but inoffensive nickname for members.”
But President Nelson said in his August statement to urge people not to use Mormon or LDS that 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, President Nelson acknowledged that it would be a “challenge to undo tradition of more than 100 years” but said the name of the faith is “not negotiable,” according to a video posted on a church website. 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,” President Nelson said. “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, President Nelson said, “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 church 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 choir renaming came a day before President Nelson and other church leaders provided spiritual guidance and delivered 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 to a wide audience.
Choir president Ron Jarrett called the name change an exciting opportunity for the choir to start a new chapter that aligns the group with President 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. He added, “I don’t think we’ll lose people. In fact, we may even gain listeners. … It will look and feel and sound just like always, but maybe even better.”
The church previously embraced and promoted the term Mormon, including with a 2014 documentary about church 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 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 engrained both in the church and in the minds of the general public,” Froke said.
The new directive was the focus of one of President Nelson’s General Conference addresses.
Chad Guertin, a 32-year-old Mormon from Magna, Utah, said he’s not upset about President Nelson’s guidance but that it’s difficult to weed out the use of Mormon and LDS.
“You want to, you know you should, but it’s so habitual in how we’ve referred to ourselves for so long,” Guertin said. “Putting it into practice is harder because we have an awfully long name.”
