Hello again, everyone! As I observed in another post earlier today, since President Monson's funeral has been set for Friday January 12, the First Presidency will not be reorganized until the following Sunday, January 14. That said, I thought it might be helpful for some of you if I posted some observations about retained members of the First Presidency after a new Church President is called.
So let's get into that. I don't know how many of you might have been aware of this, but President Monson received his apostolic call because the next most junior apostle at that time, Elder N. Eldon Tanner, had been called as a counselor to President David O. McKay after only having served in that Quorum for a year. He served with President McKay until the 9th Church President passed away.
When Joseph Fielding Smith was subsequently ordained as the 10th Church President, he retained President Tanner as Second Counselor and called President Lee as his First Counselor, with the three serving together for roughly 2.5 years. When President Lee became Church President, he again retained President Tanner, but selected him as his First Counselor, and chose President Marion G. Romney as his Second Counselor. Presidents Tanner and Romney were retained by President Kimball when he became Church President in 1973.
During President Kimball's administration (in the early 80s), all three men were older, not feeling well, and not able to function fully. That brought President Gordon B. Hinckley into the First Presidency as an additional counselor in July 1981. Roughly 1.5 years later, President Tanner passed away, at which point President Kimball designated Presidents Romney and Hinckley as his new First and Second Counselors respectively. During the 4 years President HInckley served as President Kimball's counselor, he was the only actively functioning member of the First Presidency.
For that reason, when President Benson became Church President, he did not retain President Romney in the First Presidency, but designated Presidents Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson as his First and Second Counselors respectively. When President Hunter became Church President, he retained the two men in the same positions. Following President Hunter's passing, President Hinckley selected Presidents Monson and James E. Faust as his First and Second Counselors.
More recently, upon President Faust's death in August 2007, President Hinckley selected President Henry B. Eyring to fill the vacancy in the First Presidency. And as we all know, when President Hinckley himself passed away just under 10 years ago, President Monson retained President Eyring, making him his First Counselor, and he called President Uchtdorf to serve as Second Counselor.
This brings me to my point in mentioning all of this background information. While there are no set rules that would require President Nelson to retain one or both of President Monson's counselors, since the two sat in councils with President Monson, they would likely be aware of anything that President Monson indicated he wanted done, which would factor into the potential things that President Nelson will be accomplishing during however long he serves as Church President.
So I think it would be safe to assume that President Nelson will retain both Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf, though nothing is stopping him from doing otherwise, if he feels so inclined. The amazing thing with those two counselors to President Monson is that, as I have previously noted, they were the 11th and 12th most senior apostles at the time they were called to serve with President Monson almost 10 years ago, and the apostles that have passed away within that decade has resulted in the two now being the 5th and 6th in seniority respectively. If President Nelson discerns that the Lord needs it to be otherwise, it will, of course, be so, but it seems to be a safe conclusion for now.
Whomever his counselors wind up being, we do know that Elder Oaks will ordain and set apart President Nelson in his new calling, and that President Nelson, after setting apart his counselors (assuming Elder Oaks is not one of them), will then set apart Elder Oaks as the new President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And, as I already noted, since President Monson's funeral services have been set for January 12, we will likely see President Nelson officially take the mantle of Church leadership on the following Sunday (which will be the 14th), and the press conference introducing the new First Presidency on the following day.
Hope these thoughts are 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.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Some Observations Regarding First Presidency Members Retained by Prophetic Successors
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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