Palmyra Visitor's Center and the Christus is no more.

[Tacenda]

Saw this on a FB post by Al Fox Carraway, she's the one that joined the church in her younger age and had already had a lot of tattoos and wrote the book called "Tattooed Mormon". She is wondering why the Palmyra visitor's center took the Christus down. Do we have any guesses or true reasons that someone has heard?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cnp21UMB5/

Edited August 28, 2025 by Tacenda

[Calm]

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/hill-cumorah-rededication#:~:text=The hill is now being,and paths were also removed.

Nothing about the Christus.

Total speculation:  maybe it was removed to help create a more individual to the site experience rather than too much repetition of other sites?  Replacing it with the unique set of original statues rather than a copy, even if the copy was beautiful?  Was the Christus under the dome?  This is how it looks now.  I prefer the scripture verses to the ‘grove’ setting.

Edited August 28, 2025 by Calm

[Calm]

Found an older shot, that was where the Christus was.  Can’t get it to allow a screenshot, so here’s the link.

https://www.iloveny.com/listing/hill-cumorah-visitors-center/2314/

 

[Calm]

I have no clue how accurate this is as my previous question on what happened to the Palmyra Christus said it was moved to Temple Square, the links showing it got mixed up with the TS renovation, so it may be making this up too.

There are apparently quite a few visitor centers with Christus statues or at least there was.  Would be interesting to see if others have lost or are losing them.

AI:

Quote

Temple visitor centers that feature a Christus statue include locations in Salt Lake City, Utah; St. George, Utah; Los Angeles, California; Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; Palmyra, New York; Independence, Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois; and Mesa, Arizona, as well as others internationally. The Christus statue is a replica of the original Bertel Thorvaldsen sculpture and serves as a central symbol in many of the visitor centers.

It got its info from here, which may be from 2015.

https://mormonwiki.com/Christus_Statue
 

Quote

The Salt Lake City replica of the Christus is not the only replica owned by the Church of Jesus Christ. There are 14 statues used in displays by the Church at the Temple Visitors’ Centers: Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; St. George, Utah; Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; Palmyra, New York; Independence, Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois; Hill Cumorah in New York; Hawaii, Arizona, Washington D.C., Mexico City, New Zealand; and a traveling statue. One statue was donated to the Icelandic Immigration Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland.

 

[ZealouslyStriving]

12 hours ago, Calm said:

Would be interesting to see if others have lost or are losing them.

I don't know if there are less, but it would make sense in light of the decision to no longer place Moroni statues on Temples to avoid the perception of idol worship.

[Calm]

9 minutes ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

I don't know if there are less, but it would make sense in light of the decision to no longer place Moroni statues on Temples to avoid the perception of idol worship.

Seems like if they were inside, a Christus wouldn’t draw that kind of attention.  It is obviously Christ, so no confusion over worshipping someone else instead.  They are keeping the Christus in Salt Lake last I read, so it seems like it would be okay in cultures where religious statues weren’t venerated, etc.  Besides New Zealand and Mexico, they are all in the States and as far as I am aware New Zealand and Mexico wouldn’t have that issue…but perhaps leaders are considering immigrants and tourists from other countries as well.

[ZealouslyStriving]

15 minutes ago, Calm said:

They are keeping the Christus in Salt Lake last I read, so it seems like it would be okay in cultures where religious statues weren’t venerated, etc.

That would make sense to me, except that the Church is leaving Moroni off (almost?) all new Temples, including those in the US and other western nations with no history of idol worship. 🤷‍♂️

[Calm]

3 hours ago, ZealouslyStriving said:

That would make sense to me, except that the Church is leaving Moroni off (almost?) all new Temples, including those in the US and other western nations with no history of idol worship. 🤷‍♂️

I am assuming that is in part for consistency and also because pictures of the outside of temples are much more common online in my experience.  Plus Moroni isn’t Christ and having Moroni on temples has been shown to confuse people about who we worship. I don’t believe the same can be said for a Christus statue.

[rpn]

My own experience with the Christus statute at the Hill Cumorah was that there simply wasn't enough room for how it is used (at least in SLC where I'd regularly spent hours sitting with it, communing and I wasn't generally the only one).    The Hill Cumorah center is much much smaller and the exhibits (3 years ago) when I was there cramped.   

There are a lot of site specific exhibits that are needed at that site.

 

Edited August 29, 2025 by rpn

[bluebell]

26 minutes ago, rpn said:

My own experience with the Christus statute at the Hill Cumorah was that there simply wasn't enough room for how it is used (at least in SLC where I'd regularly spent hours sitting with it, communing and I wasn't generally the only one).    The Hill Cumorah center is much much smaller and the exhibits (3 years ago) when I was there cramped.   

There are a lot of site specific exhibits that are needed at that site.

 

I was at the Hill Cumorah site about nine years ago, and I don’t even remember the Christus. There’s a lot going on there, and it could’ve been that I’m so used to seeing the Christus at church sites that it didn’t make much of an impression.

[Tacenda]

Thanks for all your comments on such a silly post really. Or maybe not, to Al it's hard to take, she's all about that number one is Christ. And in the church that is true, but I thought I'd ask the question here for Al, not that she reads the board, not sure. 

I had a wonderful experience at the Hill Comorah and surrounding areas in Palmyra with my husband at the start of my faith crisis. And do remember the Christus, but maybe it's a given that we believe in Christ and doesn't need to be some kind of idol. Jesus is a humble Saviour after all. I do remember a time in the eighties where in Relief Society we'd get a porcelain Christus or an unfinished Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamani. And we would sand it down, I had the Gethsamani one and it was an experience to lightly sand it to be smooth, sort of spiritual. But then a Stake President in my sister in law's stake wasn't all that happy with us doing this, maybe it was something to do with worshipping idols?

But anyhow thanks to those of you for taking time out of your day to respond to my post. 

[Stargazer]

On 8/28/2025 at 11:01 AM, Calm said:

Found an older shot, that was where the Christus was.  Can’t get it to allow a screenshot, so here’s the link.

https://www.iloveny.com/listing/hill-cumorah-visitors-center/2314/

 

I used my screen capture software to get it:

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Stargazer said:

I used my screen capture software to get it:

I hadn’t looked at the enlarged version, so it’s a much better impression now for me than before.  I like it better from the outside than the inside, it is not just the statue but the setting that matters and I now have a better understanding of why someone would love and miss it.  So thanks for taking the time to do this.

I still think I prefer the change even though I am guessing it’s not as striking from the outside.

[Tacenda]

Thanks @Stargazer! I'd forgotten it was there. In my memory I thought it was as we came in the front door, not to the left of it. It is a beautiful sight. Sometimes change to some isn't always best. 

[Buckeye]

I can affirm the Rome temple visitor center has a Cristus. That one is surrounded by smaller statues of the original 12 apostles. One thing I really like about that visitor center and others is that it includes a home interior fashioned to be like a home if a regular person living in that country. We’ve seen that in visitor centers in San Diego, St. George, SLC, Washington DC, maybe others. Each home is unique to the temple location. 

[Calm]

41 minutes ago, Buckeye said:

I can affirm the Rome temple visitor center has a Cristus. That one is surrounded by smaller statues of the original 12 apostles. One thing I really like about that visitor center and others is that it includes a home interior fashioned to be like a home if a regular person living in that country. We’ve seen that in visitor centers in San Diego, St. George, SLC, Washington DC, maybe others. Each home is unique to the temple location. 

A home in this time?  What is the purpose out of curiosity?

[Buckeye]

On 9/13/2025 at 11:39 PM, Calm said:

A home in this time?  What is the purpose out of curiosity?

It’s a model living room missionaries use to teach visitors. They after move into the home room immediately after starting a visit at the Christus and talk about the importance of families. 

Edited September 15, 2025 by Buckeye

[Buckeye]

click through the pictures on the church website. You can see the exterior of the Italian home in the tenth picture. Unfortunately none are of the interior. 
 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/locations/rome-temple-visitors-center?lang=eng#d

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Buckeye said:

It’s a model living room missionaries use to teach visitors. They after move into the home room immediately after starting a visit at the Christus and talk about the importance of families. 

Seems like the idea is to help them feel comfortable and be more open to the idea of inviting missionaries to their own home, so very smart to do in the local style and not one size fits all, meaning probably generic American style….

[Buckeye]

3 hours ago, Calm said:

Seems like the idea is to help them feel comfortable and be more open to the idea of inviting missionaries to their own home, so very smart to do in the local style and not one size fits all, meaning probably generic American style….

I don’t know but that’s my guess too. It’s a neat touch in an otherwise fairly uniform approach to visitor centers.
 

FWIW, the San Diego center has some cool animatronics that feel like a Disney tech consulted with the church. 

[bluebell]

Here's a link about the dedication that Al spoke of in that first link that Tacenda provided.  It happened yesterday.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/bednar-hill-cumorah?fbclid=IwY2xjawM-ZpxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETExUG9WY1YzNmlxb2d3Ym5uAR6K5j4CdAfDpsdgg2C_3GvMrBH9t3kvb0CNx1apLg3PQSO4b6MluFyRMVGChQ_aem_yRf5zoyhjRmSDE3VEB527Q

[bluebell]

On 8/29/2025 at 10:51 AM, Tacenda said:

Thanks for all your comments on such a silly post really. Or maybe not, to Al it's hard to take, she's all about that number one is Christ. And in the church that is true, but I thought I'd ask the question here for Al, not that she reads the board, not sure. 

I had a wonderful experience at the Hill Comorah and surrounding areas in Palmyra with my husband at the start of my faith crisis. And do remember the Christus, but maybe it's a given that we believe in Christ and doesn't need to be some kind of idol. Jesus is a humble Saviour after all. I do remember a time in the eighties where in Relief Society we'd get a porcelain Christus or an unfinished Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamani. And we would sand it down, I had the Gethsamani one and it was an experience to lightly sand it to be smooth, sort of spiritual. But then a Stake President in my sister in law's stake wasn't all that happy with us doing this, maybe it was something to do with worshipping idols?

But anyhow thanks to those of you for taking time out of your day to respond to my post. 

I just noticed this post Tacenda, and the bolded part made me wonder, did Al not realize that the new statue they replaced the Christus with is also a statue of Christ?

Bednar said in speaking about the rededication, that the changes were to put the focus more on Christ.

[Tacenda]

8 hours ago, bluebell said:

I just noticed this post Tacenda, and the bolded part made me wonder, did Al not realize that the new statue they replaced the Christus with is also a statue of Christ?

Bednar said in speaking about the rededication, that the changes were to put the focus more on Christ.

Oh, I bet she did know this. Here's her newest post on FB about it: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18oq21jEuh/

I guess she just missed having the Christus statue in particular. I didn't know there was another statue of Jesus, thanks for the heads up! But I believe she probably knew there was a different one, it was me that didn't understand that. 

And below the one I saw the first time and it sure clears things up when seeing the recent she put out. Thanks bluebell!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CG1XYfbRq/

[bluebell]

33 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

Oh, I bet she did know this. Here's her newest post on FB about it: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18oq21jEuh/

I guess she just missed having the Christus statue in particular. I didn't know there was another statue of Jesus, thanks for the heads up! But I believe she probably knew there was a different one, it was me that didn't understand that. 

And below the one I saw the first time and it sure clears things up when seeing the recent she put out. Thanks bluebell!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CG1XYfbRq/

I honestly didn't know it was Christ the first time I saw it. It's very different than the type of statues that we usually see!

[Stargazer]

On 9/14/2025 at 5:58 AM, Buckeye said:

I can affirm the Rome temple visitor center has a Cristus. That one is surrounded by smaller statues of the original 12 apostles. One thing I really like about that visitor center and others is that it includes a home interior fashioned to be like a home if a regular person living in that country. We’ve seen that in visitor centers in San Diego, St. George, SLC, Washington DC, maybe others. Each home is unique to the temple location. 

I think the original Christus statue in Copenhagen is likewise surrounded by smaller statues of the original 12. That's what I heard from an area authority at a recent stake conference, who was from Denmark.

Edited September 23, 2025 by Stargazer