It was a new school. When Kevin first began attending classes there, the school was only thirteen years old. Kevin completed a three-year program and earned his J.D. degree, which qualified him, depending on his passing of the bar exam, to practice law anywhere in the United States.
CHAPTER 8
A Working Lawyer
During October 1989, when Tabatha Bassett was thirteen years old, Kevin Bryant passed the bar exam at the age of thirty-one and was licensed to practice law in New York State. A few months later, after a short search, Kevin Bryant landed a job.
It wasn’t the best job. Low pay. High turnover. Okay for a guy fresh out of school. He accepted a position as a staff attorney at a local branch of Hyatt Legal Services, once a regionally well-known chain of law offices.
Hyatt, the chain, was called “the McDonald’s of the legal profession” by Barron’s magazine. The chain of law offices was cofounded in 1977 by Joel Z. Hyatt, who had earned his J.D. only the year before at Yale Law School. Hyatt, the man, was named by The American Lawyer as one of the ten most influential attorneys during the 1980s for his pioneering efforts in making the legal system work on behalf of middle-income families. Briefly involved in politics, in 1994, Hyatt was Ohio’s Democratic nominee for the Senate. Today, Hyatt is the CEO of a start-up cable network that he established with former vice president Al Gore. According to the newsletter of Stanford Graduate School, where Joel Hyatt was a teacher, Hyatt Legal Services “helped revolutionize the legal services delivery system by making legal care affordable and accessible to middle- and lower-income families.” The founder flourished, the law offices not so much. They were less than glamorous, but that was where Kevin landed a job. Everybody was inexperienced, or otherwise troubled. In a sense it was like working at McDonald’s. When anyone seemed too sharp and had been there for too long, coworkers wondered why they hadn’t moved on.
In 1986, KRON-TV in San Francisco reported: “Since 1977, Hyatt Legal Services has grown into the largest law firm in the U.S., serving mainly middle-class clients out of storefront offices. While Hyatt’s growth has been spectacular, former Hyatt lawyers have claimed that the incentive to take on new clients causes heavy workloads and high staff turnover, and charged that in the Bay Area, Hyatt hired two attorneys under suspension by the bar. Although the firm’s system works well for some clients, it may be inappropriate for more complicated cases, such as contested divorces.” So, the impression was that Hyatt generated a lot of business, and if it did make a lot of money, it did so through volume. They also were not too picky about the lawyers they hired, it seemed.
In June 1993, Kevin Bryant became a partner in the Hyatt’s office in Greece, New York. His supervisor there was a man named William R. Shero (pseudonym). A swinging bachelor with a steady income, Kevin bought himself a Mazda Miata. After a couple years on the job there, Kevin bought the house on Pennicott Circle in Penfield. The house was in a perfect location. It was only about a mile from where he had grown up, and where his mom and dad still lived. It was a big house; so to help pay the mortgage, according to neighbors, Kevin frequently invited people to come live with him.
When his supervisor separated from his wife and was in the process of getting a divorce, Kevin invited Shero to take one of the bedrooms. As a result, they became housemates for a while.
CHAPTER 9
The Community of Christ
So how did the world of a small-town teenager and a middle-aged city lawyer intersect? The answer is, they shared a common faith. Asked if her entire family belonged to the Community of Christ Church, Samantha Bassett said, “Oh yes—and then some! It’s an important part of our lives.”
Both the Bryants and the Bassetts were active in the Community of Christ Church, which had congregations both in Greenwood, in Steuben County, and in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford. The church mission was to “proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace.” Although this was not the same church as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, there were similarities. Both churches, for example, traced their roots back to the early nineteenth century and proclaimed Joseph Smith—a resident of Palmyra, New York, only fifteen miles from Penfield—to be their first leader.
According to church literature, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on April 6, 1860, in Amboy, Illinois. Their headquarters has moved several times, but, ever since 1920, it had been in Independence, Missouri. A new temple/headquarters in Independence was opened in 1994. The church’s “original temple” was in Kirtland, Ohio, and was maintained as a historical site.
Members of the Community of Christ Church did not call themselves Mormons, and will correct outsiders who erroneously refer to them as such. (There are two reasons why this is a touchy subject. For one thing, the term Mormon connotes for many people a belief in polygamy. Members of the Community of Christ are supposed to believe in monogamy. Also, they do not believe that the term “Mormon” was “part of the original church.” They referred to themselves only as Christians.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (referred to as LDS, Mormons) and the Community of Christ were the two largest denominations in the Christian “Restorationist” movement. At least, originally, these denominations believed that the true Christian Church died out in the early second century C.E., and was restored by Joseph Smith’s ordination and his subsequent founding of the original LDS church. The Community of Christ had since abandoned this belief.
The church was originally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but it was agreed at a 2000 conference in Kansas City, Missouri, that this was quite a mouthful. So, by a vote of 1,979 to 561, it was agreed to change the name to Community of Christ. The new name took effect on January 1, 2001.
From an outsider’s point of view, the Community of Christ seemed more greatly in touch with the modern world than the Mormon Church. For example, they did not baptize or marry by proxy their ancestors. They rejected the “Eternal Progression” theory, which was believed by some LDS membership in the nineteenth century: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, so man may become.”
They criticized Brigham Young’s practice of “blood atonement”: that if persons who commit murder are executed so that their blood is spilled upon the ground, then they might obtain forgiveness for their sins. Although, to be fair, that doctrine was no longer emphasized by the Mormons, either.
The Community of Christ Church rejected the sexism of the Church of Latter-day Saints. Women had been ordained since 1984. The leadership of the C of C Church has been gradually moving in a more liberal and ecumenical direction.
According to their Web site: “The C of C does not have a formal creed that its members must accept.” However, a consensus existed on the following beliefs:
They viewed God as the “eternal Creator, the source of love, life, and truth.” Most viewed God as the first element of the Trinity. They considered Jesus Christ as the “living expression of God in the flesh.” They believed in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Most considered Jesus to be the second element of the Trinity; some Jesus and God as two different persons. Most perceived the Holy Spirit as a person and as the third component of the Trinity. Some considered the Holy Spirit to be the “continuing presence of God in the world.” Salvation and eternal life in heaven after death were available to all who accepted the Gospel. Salvation was by belief and works. The Book of Mormon referred to being “restored to Grace, according to your works.” The Doctrine & Covenants also encouraged “works” for salvation. People who did not accept the Gospel would be given a second opportunity after their death. God’s revelation continued to expand in the present day. They had eight sacraments: blessing of children, adult baptism by immersion and the laying on of hands, confirmation of membership, The Lord’s Supper (Communion), marriage, administration to the sick, ordination to the priesthood, and the evangelist’s blessing. Both women and men were eligible for ordination and assignment to all offices within