In addition, the PAC has turned to several prominent Mormon figures for help in shaping the initiative, including Sheri L. Dew, the chief executive of church-owned Deseret Book Co., a best-selling author of Mormon books, and a Romney donor.

Others approached by the PAC include Mac Christensen, president of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Richard Eyre, a well-known writer, former Utah gubernatorial candidate, and speaker on family issues whom Romney asked be consulted, the documents show.

While Spencer Zwick, a former deputy chief of staff in the governor's office who manages fund-raising for the Commonwealth PAC, has been a key player in shaping the effort, others involved, according to the documents, include his father, W. Craig Zwick, who is a member of the church's Seventies, a group charged with implementing church policy around the country.

The governor's brother Scott Romney, a lawyer in Michigan who is assisting the effort, also sits on the board of the George W. Romney Institute of Public Management at BYU, which was named for his father.

Romney aides declined to make the governor available Wednesday night to discuss the initiative.

Romney advisers also gave conflicting accounts of the current status of the MVP program. On Monday, Stirling described the MVP program as active and forward-looking.

"We are just looking to gather those who would be interested in helping the governor now and should he decide to move forward in the future," he said in an interview.

But on Tuesday, Spencer Zwick said the MVP initiative has been abandoned. He said the effort "never materialized into a specific program."

Zwick, asked how his description of the MVP program squared with Stirling's description and recent e-mails and meetings, said Stirling is not authorized to speak on behalf of the Commmonwealth PAC and attributed the other recent activity to ongoing efforts by Romney backers to build support for him.

The Mormon community nationwide, at 5.7 million and growing, carries tremendous potential for a Romney candidacy, in terms of both donors and political activists.

But the discussions among church officials and Romney's political operatives come just as the IRS has stepped up warnings to religious organizations to stay out of political campaigning or face sanctions.

Federal tax rules aside, the church takes pains to publicly reaffirm its own historic commitment to what it calls political neutrality, most recently in a pre-election advisory the leadership sent last week to congregations nationwide.

The discussions among Romney's nascent presidential campaign and Mormon leaders also come at a delicate time for the governor politically. By most accounts, Romney has catapulted himself into the top tier of GOP hopefuls, in part by appealing to conservatives on immigration, national security, and other leading issues.

But many conservative Christian voters view Mormonism as non-Christian, and the more Romney gains in prominence, the more he confronts questions about his relationship with the church.

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Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com; Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. © New York Times News Service.