Hello again, everyone! With just short of a week left until funeral services are held to honor the life of President Thomas S. Monson, and noting that it will, at earliest, be a couple of days after that (Sunday January 14) before the First Presidency is reorganized, and still another day before the new First Presidency will meet the press and take questions from media representatives, I wanted to take a moment in this post to pass along some data I have compiled regarding where President Nelson will fit in with his prophetic predecessors in terms of his age and tenure.
Obviously, in doing so, I am working off the assumption that President Nelson will become the next President of the Church. At times like these, the Church's doctrines and policies indicate that if the senior apostle consults with the Lord and feels impressed to do so, he could announce his feeling that someone junior to him should be appointed in his stead. But that has never once happened in any of the 15 (soon to be 16) transitions there have been in the Church presidency, so while it is possible, it is unlikely.
With that said, I am going to note the obvious here: that is, that President Nelson will be the Church president with the shortest tenure for the first 9 months or so he serves, and because of the varying tenure lengths of his predecessors, he will mark only one tenure milestone before the end of this year,
In terms of his age, his birth date makes him the 16th in chronological order, while his age will put him at the bottom of the five oldest Church presidents. And if he is still living roughly a week after the April 2022 General Conference, he will have already become the oldest prophet in the Church's history. About one year previous to that time, his tenure length will have reached the 13th longest such period in Church history.
It continually amazes me to consider how Church presidents come to these callings ready to do the Lord's will for as long as his service in that capacity is needed, and also how and when the Lord enables other apostles to move up in apostolic seniority, with some passing away before they become Church president, and others outliving those senior to them, whether they are older or younger than those who have gone before.
I hope this information was helpful to at least some of you. 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.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Exploring Where President Nelson Will Rank Among His Prophetic Predecessors
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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James, I don't know if you've done these calculations yet. But I thought you might enjoy these. Using data from https://ldsfacts.net/apostleu, I calculate that Pres. Nelson passed Charles W. Penrose on Dec. 22, 2017 (if my calculations are correct) to become the 7th oldest apostle in Church history. His next milestone in terms of age is almost 18 months away, on July 6, 2019, when he will pass President Benson to become the 6th oldest apostle (along with the fourth oldest prophet).
ReplyDeleteOther milestones include:
Aug. 23, 2020, to pass Joseph Fielding Smith (this will make him the 3rd oldest prophet
and 5th oldest apostle)
Jan. 20, 2021, to pass David O. McKay (he will be 2nd oldest prophet, 4th oldest apostle)
Aug. 15, 2021, to pass Legrand Richards and become the 3rd oldest apostle
Apr. 14, 2022, to pass Gordon B. Hinckley, (oldest prophet, 2nd oldest apostle)
Aug. 8, 2022, to pass David B. Haight and become the oldest apostle.
On a side note, on October 8, Elder Ballard will become the 19th modern apostle to reach the age of 90. (The above site's list includes Richard R. Lyman, who was no longer serving as an apostle when he turned 90 years old.)
I have been tracking those calculations for a while now, in addition to when and how soon those who are or will be numbered among the nonagenarian apostles will join the others on that list. With President Monson's 90th birthday having been marked on August 21, 2017, 3 months and 7 days prior to his death, he passed J. Reuben Clark to become the 17th oldest of our 18 nonagenarians. The data I track on a weekly basis is more extensive than that, but it is interesting to observe how and when that happens. Thanks for taking time to comment.
ReplyDeleteI also track the amount of time until each current apostle will join that list. Having already run the calculations for next week (at which time President Neelson will likely have been ordained and set apart as Church President), our apostles will join the nonagenarian list at various intervals, ranging from Elder Ballard's 8 months and 24 days (which, again, will be the figure next week) to Elder Stevenson, who will, as of next Sunday, reach that milestone 27 years, 6 months, and 23 days from next Sunday. It is also interesting to note that the deaths of Elder Hales and President Monson cut the average age of the 13 remaining apostles. I have a hunch that the new apostles, when appointed, could be within the age range between their early 50s and late 60s, which would impact those numbers as well. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, I pulled all the information I've been tracking from the LDS facts website. There are a couple of minor errors with the data there, but their general accuracy has been such that I am willing to work with whatever data I get from there to run the calculations about when future milestones will be reached. One issue I did notice is that they typically round their time periods up to the nearest month or year, whereas I prefer to use full year, month, and day calculations. And in looking ahead to President Nelson's milestones as Church President, and also those of his successor as President of the Quorum of the Twelve (which will be Elder Oaks), there is a lot of data to track, but I do my best to keep on top of it all. In terms of what we can look forward to in the future, I would be very much surprised if President Nelson opted to not retain one or both of President Monson's counselors. He may opt to only keep one of them or to replace them both. But I remember reading in President Monson's biography that in considering whom he should call and in ascertaining those calls should go to Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf, he figured that his status as the most senior apostle would more than compensate for the fact that those two men who would serve with him were then only the 11th and 12th most senior apostles. In retaining the two, President Nelson would not only have the benefit of hearing from them anything that President Monson may have expressed a desire to have done, and any deliberations or discussions that had not resulted in decisions, and to take action on all of those things. And the two are no longer in the junior half along the 13 apostles. The two are now the 5th and 6th in apostolic seniority. It is interesting to see these times of transition. I have made those the subject of much study, and I cannot wait to see what develops in that regard in the near future. One other thing I wanted to note. With the deaths of Elder Hales and President Monson, we lost two men who were among the oldest in the apostleship. If Presidents Eyring and UChtdorf are retained under President Nelson, the fact that President Nelson was almost three years older than his predecessor will mean an increase in the average age of the First Presidency members. But since we will also see two new apostles called that are either in their 50s or 60s, the average age of the Quorum of the Twelve and the 15 apostles as a group may decrease quite a bit. I will post at some point this week some of the data I've been looking at. Stay tuned for that, and thanks again.
ReplyDelete