Hello, all. This will be a post to let you know the latest on the average ages of our apostles. As I have noted before, not all that much has changed in terms of the statistics associated with the tenure length of President Russell M. Nelson or his rank among the other nonagenarian apostles, where President Monson stands among the other 15 Church Presidents in terms of age and tenure length (though it is significant that he is nearing his 9-year mark as our current prophet), and where the other apostles are in terms of being close to nonagenarian status and also in terms of who is closest to the average ages of the three apostolic groups. That being said, tomorrow Elder D. Todd Christofferson will celebrate his 72nd birthday. It is exciting to see such milestones happen.
That said, let's throw out some numbers. As of yesterday (Sunday January 22), the average of the the members of the First Presidency reached 83.09 years. As an interesting side note, the current First Presidency will have been organized for 9 years on February 3, making it very possible that, barring anything unforeseen, and especially in light of the fact that President Monson's health may be improving, they could, if nothing changes for the next year, tie the record for the longest period in Church history without a change. That record was previously set by President Hinckley's presidency that included him, President Monson, and President Faust. So it could very well happen.
With that noted, all that's left is to report on the other two numbers. The average age of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reached 74.64 years, while the average of the 15 apostles overall came to 76.33 years.
Any comments continue to be welcome and appreciated on things I post about here. I hope that some of you might find this information useful. If these updates at any point become too tiresome, please let me know. I am just hoping that this information means as much to some of my readers as it does to me. Thanks for continuing to indulge my ramblings, such as they are.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Latest Apostolic Age Averages
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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It would have to be more than one year to tie the record for longest First Presidency. Pres. Hinckley-Monson-Faust was 12 years 5 months. I think the record you are thinking of is the 9 years of no change to the FP & Q12. Sadly we lost some much beloved apostles recently and won't see that happen for sometime.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation, Scott! Of course, you are right, on both counts. Presidents Hinckley, Monson, and Faust did serve for 12 years, but it was just short of the 5 month mark. President Faust died on August 10, 2007, and he had been in the First Presidency together with the others since President Hinckley was ordained and set apart as the 15th Church President on March 12, 1995. Not short by much, only two days, but still. Upon reflecting on your comment, I was referring to that 9 years of no change to the apostleship. After the 3 that were lost in such a short time in 2015, it will be a while before that record is reached. Thanks for that reminder. Unfortunately, given the health of some of the Brethren, particularly that of President Monson and Elder Hales, it will probably be a number of years before that record is ever reached, especially considering that President Nelson is 92 and that Elder Ballard is just a year younger than President Monson. I could perhaps see it happening during the potential future presidencies of Elders Oaks, Holland, or Bednar. However, that said, the intervals of the apostles' ages (with many younger more senior apostles and many older more junior ones) does make it possible that the record, established at that time, might not conceivably be reached or surpassed for the foreseeable future. Thanks for correcting and clarifying things. I will not correct this in the actual post for now. In this case, I want ths comment thread to serve to correct it better than an edit of the actual post would be. That said, thanks again, and I apologize for the unintentional misinformation.
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