Hello again, everyone! I am back (with my 1000th post on this blog) to pass along some thoughts about prophetic succession and upcoming scheduled Church events. In doing so, I begin by sharing something that first occurred to me early on last night following the breaking news of President Monson's passing. When he became President of the Church, at that February 3, 2008 meeting in the temple, there were four apostles appointed during the presidency of his predecessor that were participating in that process for the first time, Elders Eyring, Uchtdorf, Bednar and Cook, and the reorganization that will likely occur in the next little while will be their second such opportunity.
Whenever the First Presidency is reorganized again, the five apostles appointed during President Monson's almost-10-year administration (Elders Christofferson, Andersen, Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund) will be part of that process for the first time. That means that 9 of the 13 have had their calls to the apostleship within the last 10 years alone. That is pretty significant.
Again, while I am not sure at all (with official information still pending, as this occurred over the last 15 hours or so) how soon the funeral arrangements for President Monson may be announced, I am thinking, if the precedent of the past holds that we could see the funeral be set for either Saturday this week or the following Monday.
If the funeral is held this Saturday, I feel safe in assuming that, as was the case when President Hinckley died just about 10 years ago, then the reorganization of the First Presidency will likely take place this Sunday, January 7, with the newly constituted First Presidency meeting the press the following day, in company with the 10 remaining members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
I also wanted to mention a couple of other things: As I previously posted on this blog when these events were first announced, President Uchtdorf and his wife had been announced as the speakers for the January 2018 Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults, which was scheduled to occur on Sunday January 14.
The Church also recently announced that Elder Christofferson has been asked to represent the Brethren at the annual broadcast for religious instructors serving in Seminaries and Institutes of Religion on Friday January 26, and President Nelson and his wife had been asked to represent the First Presidency in the worldwide Face-to-Face event for the youth of the Church that has been set for Saturday February 3.
My reason for mentioning all of this is to note that new Church presidents almost always honor such arrangements that were originally made by their predecessors. There was, however, one notable exception that occurred in 2008. Because of President Hinckley's death on January 27, the apostles, under the leadership of President Monson as Quorum President, announced that the Rexburg Idaho Temple dedication, which had originally been set for February 3, would be pushed back to the following Sunday to allow the 14 remaining apostles to make funeral arrangements and to reorganize the First Presidency.
That said, while our current 13 apostles under the leadership of President Nelson are certainly at liberty to alter both the sequence and circumstances of these upcoming events, I imagine President Nelson will want to honor those assignments that were given with President Monson's consent. And whether or not the funeral occurs near the end of this week, whenever such arrangements are announced, you can count on my bringing them to you here.
That does it for this post. Any and all 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 and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
1000th Blog Post Some Thoughts About Prophetic Succession and Upcoming Scheduled Church Events
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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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.
I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.
And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.
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Not sure what you meant by "9 of the 13 have had their calls to the apostleship in the last ten years." Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar were called 13 years ago and Elder Eyring received his call almost 23 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair point, Scott, and you are correct. I referenced above the fact that those 4 apostles called under President Hinckley's presidency had their first experience being part of the reorganization process in 2008, and this will be the first time for the five apostles appointed by President Monson, but Elder Eyring was called almost 23 years ago, and Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar were not called until more than 9 years later. My point was more to demonstrate that the Lord has been at work not just through Church history, but even more so particularly in the 23 years since President Hinckley became Church President, and that it is a monumental time for the 13 apostles to have all but 4 for which this will only be the first or second such experience they have had. I am afraid that, in my rush to get these thoughts down, I wasn't very clear. Sorry about that, and thanks for catching my mistake and letting me know. Ordinarily, I would simply edit the post above to reflect your correction, but I want my mistake to stand as a reminder to those not already aware of it that I am probably the most imperfect blogger covering Church subjects personally. Thanks again for letting me know.
DeleteSomething else interesting just hit me. In a post I did near the end of last year, I had offered some thoughts about when temples and the new apostle could be announced, and one of my other regular readers, Kenny, observed that if President Monson were to pass away, that would change when temples and the new apostle(s) would likely be announced. I should perhaps have taken that comment more seriously than I did. Sorry about that, Kenny!
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