[First Presidency letter]
Information has come to us from a reliable source to the effect that certain members of the Church residing in the Utah Stake make a practice of holding private meetings for the purpose of receiving supernatural manifestations for the guidance of themselves and others in regard to things spiritual and temporal: That they form themselves into a prayer circle, each member praying vocally in turn, commencing with the oldest, with Mrs. Belle Harris Berry, who is said to be the leading, dominant spirit of the aggregation, as the acknowledged medium to receive answers to their prayers which, when received, are regarded as the word of the Lord to them; that as a result of their operations the mother of Belle Harris has been induced to borrow and for the purpose of land for one of her family, giving a mortgage therefore on her home; that some of the persons said to be thus engaged are Belle Harris Berry, Silas A. Harris, her brother, Louise Harris, aged 79, her mother, R. A. Berry, her husband. If, after a discreet investigation, you find this state of things existing, it will be in order for you to see to it that the responsible parties are dealt with on their fellowship in the Church unless they give satisfactory evidence of repentance.
[Source: First Presidency, Letter to Joseph B. Keeler and Counselors, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
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