Second Ward

The Second Ward was a fundamentalist church formed in 1986 when a dispute over prophetic succession divided the community in Colorado City, Arizona. Its founding turned a contested transfer of religious authority into a lasting division: followers of Bishop Marion Hammon left the original congregation, established a separate church across the highway, and entered an enduring conflict over which group remained faithful.

Origins in a Succession Dispute

The rupture followed the death of LeRoy Johnson, the prophet known affectionately to followers as Uncle Roy, who died at ninety-eight. His passing raised the question of who could claim his religious authority. Rulon Jeffs assumed leadership, but his right to succeed Johnson was fiercely contested by Hammon and his supporters. The dispute was not simply a disagreement over administration; it concerned the legitimacy of the person who would lead the community and claim Johnson’s mantle.

Formation and Separation

Hammon’s followers made up nearly a third of the community. Rather than remain within the original congregation under Jeffs, they left as a group, moved onto a stretch of desert just across the highway, and founded their own fundamentalist church. The original congregation became known as the First Ward, while the breakaway group was called the Second Ward. Their physical proximity made the separation especially visible: the new church occupied nearby ground, but the highway marked a boundary between rival claims to religious belonging and authority.

Rival Claims to Faithfulness

The two congregations each accused the other of being godless apostates and warned that the other faced eternal damnation. In this conflict, apostasy was not a neutral description of institutional departure; it was a charge that cast the rival congregation outside the community of the faithful. The mutual denunciations turned disagreement over succession into a struggle over spiritual legitimacy, with each side treating the other’s choice of leadership as evidence of religious betrayal.

An Ongoing Division

The Second Ward split remained unresolved in the account of the community’s later leadership. When Rulon Jeffs died, uncertainty again surrounded Colorado City, and his son Warren Jeffs moved quickly to take control of the church. The earlier division was described as continuing much as before, with the two congregations still separated by reciprocal accusations of apostasy. The Second Ward’s founding therefore stands not only as the consequence of Johnson’s contested succession, but as an example of how a dispute over prophetic authority could become a durable institutional and communal schism.