Updated Age and Tenure Information for our current apostles

Hello again, everyone! Since I last offered a detailed report on the latest apostolic age and tenure milestones, over two months have come and gone, so it is high time to cover that topic again. Hopefully many of you will find this information interesting. For anyone not interested in this subject, feel free to bypass this post. For those sticking with me, the numbers I will be providing in this post are current as of today.

As always, I’d like to begin by talking about President Russell M. Nelson’s tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He has now served as Quorum President for 2 years, 3 months, and 26 days, and in view of that length, has become the 17^th longest-tenured Quorum President. On Monday December 18, he will become the 16^th longest serving Quorum President, having served longer than Harold B. Lee. The tenure milestones he will observe after that are more spread out, but I will report on his progress towards those milestones in later updates. And as is true with any other details, however many additional milestones President Nelson observes during his tenure (however long that turns out to be) will be completely in the Lord’s hands.

For now, let’s turn our attention to President Monson. Our prophet quietly marked his 90^th birthday on Monday August 21 (thereby becoming the 7^th nonagenarian Church President), and did not attend General Conference earlier this month, which is understandable in view of the May 23 announcement that he would be stepping back from an active role in Church leadership. He has been Church President now for 9 years, 8 months, and 26 days. His next age milestone will be reached next March.

Our current First Presidency are the third-longest continuously-serving in Church history. Assuming President Monson is still alive at these times, they will become the second-longest serving First Presidency next year, on Wednesday September 12, and will become the longest serving First Presidency on Friday July 3, 2020. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

I wanted to insert a general note here about declining Church presidents: We had two recent examples of Church presidents being out of the public eye for years prior to their passing. The most recent instance was with President Benson, who became the Church President in November 1985, and last delivered his own message in General Conference in October 1988, though his counselors, at his request, read two addresses from him in April 1989, and one the following October; President Benson passed away in May of 1994, just over five years after he last personally spoke in General Conference.

The next most recent example of a Church president who was out of the public eye for years prior to his passing was, by a double coincidence, President Kimball, who was not only his predecessor in the Church Presidency, but had also been ordained an apostle just prior to but on the same day as President Benson’s apostolic ordination. It is interesting to me that two apostles ordained on the same day served as Church presidents back-to-back. President Kimball was ordained Church President in December 1973, and the last time he personally spoke more than once in General Conference was April 1981. One year later, President Kimball requested his personal secretary, D. Arthur Haycock, to read an address to open the conference, and the Church was delighted to hear President Kimball give a very brief address as the last speaker during the Sunday Afternoon Session.

Then, in April 1985, the second-to-last General Conference for which President Kimball was the Church President, he gave permission for a video to be put together for the Priesthood Session, which featured snippets of counsel he had given in the Priesthood Sessions during his Church Presidency. He passed away on November 5 of that same year.

So, from those examples, we see that the President of the Church may live for several years after he steps back from an active role in leading the Church. President Benson lived for over five years after his last address, and President Kimball was able to give a brief personal address (his last public appearance) three years before his passing. In this we see the Lord’s hand controlling who lives long enough to become the senior apostle and lead His Church, and when the Church presidency passes from one senior apostle to the next. President Monson could easily live several more years, or, if the Lord willed, could be called home before next April. Many have said President Nelson and then Elder Oaks will likely be the next Church presidents. President Nelson is just under three years older than President Monson, and Elder Oaks is just under five years younger than President Monson, so anything is possible. I for one am glad that these transitions are governed by the Lord.

That said, let’s turn our attention to apostolic age developments. Before getting into the specifics of the ages of our current apostles, I wanted to note one other thing: With the death of Elder Robert D. Hales, there are only the 14 apostles, and of them, one (Elder Christofferson), has a birthday in January. One other (Elder Rasband) observes his birthday in February, then three months later, two others are fairly close together (President Eyring at the end of May, and Elder Bednar in mid-June). In August, we have four apostolic birthdays, which, in calendrical order, are observed by Elders Stevenson, Andersen and Oaks, and President Monson, whose birthday is more towards the end of the month. Elder Ballard observed his birthday earlier this month, and President Uchtdorf and Elder Renlund will mark their birthdays a week apart next month. Rounding out the year, the 14^th apostolic birthday is Elder Holland’s, which he observes at the beginning of December.

Now, in terms of specifics, President Monson is 90 years, 2 months, and 8 days old, which puts his decimal age at 90.19. President Eyring’s age now stands at 84 years, 4 months, 29 days, which is 84.41 years. Rounding out the First Presidency is President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, whose birthday is coming up a week from tomorrow, putting his age at 76 year, 11 months, and 23 days old, which is 76.98 years. So the First Presidency now has a combined life experience of 251.58 years, and their average age is 83.86 decimal years.

                                                                                                                          

With the current vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve, there are 11 members. As for their current ages, President Nelson is now 93 years, 1 month, and 20 days old, with a decimal age of 93.14 years. Elder Oaks, stands at 85 years, 2 months, and 17 days old (with a decimal age of  85.21 years). His birthday is coming up in August. Elder Ballard has reached the age of 88 years, 9 months, and 29 days old (which is 88.83 decimal years) as of today. Elder Holland, who, as mentioned, will observe his birthday in just over a month, is currently 76 years, 10 months, and 26 days old, making his decimal age 76.90 years.

Elder Bednar’s age now stands at 65 years, 4 months, and 14 days, having a decimal age of 65.37 years. Elder Cook, who is older than both President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland, marked his 77^th birthday last month, making him 77 years, 1 month, and 29 days old, which makes his decimal age 77.14 years. As for Elder Christofferson, he is 72 years, 9 months, and 5 days old, while his decimal age has now reached 72.76 years. Elder Andersen is now 66 years, 2 months, and 20 days old, which makes his decimal age 66.22 years.

Elder Rasband, just over six months older than Elder Andersen, is currently 66 years, 8 months, and 23 days, which puts his decimal age at 66.73 years. Elder Stevenson, our youngest current apostle, is 62 years, 2 months, and 23 days old, or 62.23 decimal years. Elder Renlund, the least senior but second youngest apostle, who is nearing his 65^th birthday, is 64 years, 11 months, and 16 days old, which makes his decimal age 64.96 years.

Because of the existing vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve, the 11 apostles in that group have a combined life experience of 819.72 years, putting the average age of those 11 apostles at 74.52 years. Our 14 apostles have a grand total of 1,071.3 years of life experience, which puts the average age of each of them at 76.52 years.

As I observed in another recent blog post, there is no minimum amount of age or experience required for any apostle. Therefore, whoever is called to fill the current vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles could be younger than Elder Stevenson, or could fit anywhere between any of the others in age. I do know that Elder George Q. Morris holds the distinction of being the oldest apostle called, and that call came when he was 80. My personal opinion is that the Church will opt for someone in their 50s or 60s who is well enough to do the extensive traveling required. It will be interesting to see where the new apostle fits in with the age of the other 14.

Now, if I may, I would like to share a few thoughts about present and future nonagenarian apostles. President Nelson, who is now over 93 years old, ranks as the 8^th oldest apostle in Church history. Around 1.5 months from now, (on Friday December 22), he will become the 7^th oldest apostle, having lived longer than Charles W. Penrose. His next nonagenarian milestone will not be observed until 2019.

As already noted, President Monson joined the ranks of apostolic nonagenarians on Monday August 21, 2017, becoming the 18^th such apostle in Church history. Just over a month ago, he became the 17^th oldest apostle, passing J. Reuben Clark. He will observe a few more milestones next year if he is still alive by then. In addition to however long he lives, any other milestones he may observe as a nonagenarian apostle will depend on how long President Nelson lives, and if President Monson outlives President Nelson, which may or may not happen.

Our other apostles will take varying lengths of time to join the list of nonagenarians, from Elder Ballard (who will do so in 11 months, and 9 days), to Elder Stevenson, who will do so in 27 years, 9 months, and 8 days. I am keeping an eye on all tenure and age developments relating to our apostles and will pass that information along as I am able to do so in the future.

That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best.