13 Facts About Pauline Hancock

Pauline Bailey Hancock was the founder of the Church of Christ in Independence, Missouri in 1946, and was the first woman to found and lead a denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Pauline Hancock later claimed a vision of Jesus Christ, who told her to "go and teach," leading her to found her own church in 1946.

Pauline Hancock Bailey was a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose father had been a minister of that denomination in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Pauline Hancock moved to Independence, Missouri in 1923 after marrying Silas Hancock.

In 1935, following the excommunication of her friend Apostle Samuel Wood of the Temple Lot church, Pauline Hancock resigned from that organization.

Pauline Hancock subsequently founded her own organization to propagate her teachings and visions, which included one of Jesus being crucified that led her to believe she had become "a new creature".

Pauline Hancock's organization rejected the Doctrine and Covenants of their parent church, as well as the Pearl of Great Price used by the LDS Church, retaining only the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon.

Pauline Hancock adopted a modalistic view of God, insisting that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were merely manifestation of the same, one God.

Pauline Hancock exercised functions normally reserved solely to men during this time in Latter Day Saint history, such as performing baptisms and administering other ordinances, as well as preaching.

Pauline Hancock did not claim any formal title, but remained the undisputed leader of her church from its founding until the time of her death.

Pauline Hancock died in 1962, still accepting the Book of Mormon as a valid work of scripture.

However, following her death members of her church, including Jerald and Sandra Tanner, began to question the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, which led to Pauline Hancock's church rejecting it in 1973.

Pauline Hancock's church continued to function for a time strictly as a Protestant denomination, but later chose to dissolve itself in 1984, after which its members mostly joined with various Evangelical Protestant churches.