I am posting today for a couple of reasons. First of all, I learned today that funeral services have been arranged for President Boyd K. Packer, who died yesterday of causes incident to age. The funeral will be held on Friday July 10 @ 11:00 AM MDT. Further details, such as which TV stations will carry the funeral proceedings, will be announced in the coming days. President Packer will be buried in the Brigham City Cemetery. The graveside service will be private. Now that the details of the funeral have been announced, I wonder who might be called upon to speak at the funeral.
It's been quite a while since a President of the Quorum of the Twelve has died in office. The last time was when President Marion G. Romney passed away on 20 May 1988. That was 27 years ago. Of the 27 men who have served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one was excommunicated (Thomas B. Marsh) which is why his tenure ended.
15 Quorum Presidents have become President of the Church, which is the reason for the end of their tenure. One (Orson Hyde) had his tenure end due to a readjustment in apostolic seniority. (It was determined by Brigham Young that seniority in the apostleship was to be determined by longest continuous service rather than the date on which an apostle was ordained. Hyde had previously been disfellowshipped for brief periods of time in 1839 and 1846. Additionally, from 1847 to 1868, Hyde was actually the third most senior apostle. The second most senior apostle was Heber C. Kimball, a member of the First Presidency. If current practice were followed, Kimball would have been President of the Quorum and Hyde would have served as Acting President during this time period. However, Kimball was never called as President of the Quorum of the Twelve.)
One man (Brigham Young Jr.) served twice as President of the Quorum, with his tenure interrupted by the return of Joseph F. Smith to the Quorum following the death of Lorenzo Snow. (At the beginning of Young's tenure, George Q. Cannon was the second most senior Apostle in the Church. However, Cannon was a counselor in the First Presidency and was never called as President of the Quorum. If today's practices had been followed, Cannon would have been called as Quorum President and Young as Acting Quorum President. When Cannon died in April 1901, Young remained the President of the Quorum despite the fact that First Presidency member Joseph F. Smith was then the second most senior Apostle.)
One Quorum President, Joseph F. Smith. only served in that capacity for the week between the death of Lorenzo Snow and the reorganization of the First Presidency, with Joseph F. Smith become the next Church President. When that happened, Young resumed his service as Quorum President.
8 men who served as Quorum President died in office. Additionally, 5 men who served as Quorum President were serving in the First Presidency during the entirety of their tenure, and the next most senior apostle not in the First Presidency served as Acting President. During President Marion G. Romney's tenure, he was in ill health, so Howard W. Hunter served as Acting President during Romney's entire tenure. When Romney died, Hunter became Quorum President.
The one man I haven't mentioned in this brief history of Quorum Presidents is Russell M. Nelson, who became the de facto Quorum President at the death of Boyd K. Packer yesterday. However, Nelson has yet to be set apart for this position. I hope I haven't bored anyone with this Church history lesson, but I find all this fascinating.
There is one other thing I wanted to note in this post. I went onto lds.org a couple of days ago. I was surprised to discover a link to an article on the site's main webpage. The link read, "Christ Has Felt Your Pain." I could think of only one article that had a similar title, and that was the one that I wrote. So I clicked on the link, and, sure enough, it led to the article I had written that was published in the July Ensign. So my work has been and is currently being featured on lds.org's home page. I couldn't be more pleased and proud that the Church is finding additionally uses for my article. And I hope that more people will read it as a result and that it will make a positive difference in their lives.
That's all I wanted to post about. I've "sounded off" enough for now. Until I blog again, all the best!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Funeral set for President Boyd K. Packer/My article featured on lds.org's home page
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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