Latest Apostolic Statistics: Part One--Updated Information for the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, Church President, and First Presidency

Hello again, everyone! Another 7 weeks have come and gone since I last posted an update on the latest apostolic statistics, so this will also be my first full update since the death of President Monson and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency. Be prepared: getting through it is not for the faint of heart. In beginning my coverage of this subject, I realize there may be some of my readers who have no interest in the minutiae of these details, and if any of you feel that way, I will not be offended in any way if you bypass my posts on this subject..

Having evaluated the best way to go about it, I will do it in two different parts So let’s get into the details, shall we? This first part will cover information about the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Church President, and current First Presidency, and will be followed up by a second part with the information about the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the 13 apostles overall, current and future nonagenarian apostles, and some other information I thought you'd find interesting.

This update will be somewhat different from those I have previously done, primarily because there has been a “changing of the guard” in terms of the Church presidency, and also the presidency of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. So in this first update following those changes, I will also be making observations about where Presidents Monson and Nelson stood at the conclusion of their tenures as Church president and President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

For those of you that are interested in these details, I first want to note that all the figures and data I will be presenting is, as always, current as of today. And we will start where we always do, by discussing the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (including where President Nelson stood at the end of his tenure and where his successor, President Oaks, now stands among the other Presidents of that Quorum).

So, as I’m sure is unnecessary to note, but which I want to mention for any who are newer to this blog and these reports I do, although President Monson passed away on January 2, until President Nelson’s ordination as Church President on January 14, he filled a dual role of President of the Quorum of the Twelve and the Acting President of the Church. At the time his tenure as Quorum President ended, the length of that tenure had exceeded that of Marion G. Romney by one day, resulting in President Nelson becoming the 15^th longest serving Quorum President.

Although President Oaks has taken the role of Quorum President, his service in the First Presidency means that President Ballard now serves as Acting President of the Quorum. But since President Oaks’ tenure as Quorum President depends entirely on the length of his own life and that of President Nelson, President Ballard’s service as Acting President (which may or may not last the duration of President Oaks’ tenure as Quorum President) will not be tracked in this update.

That said, with just under a month having passed since President Oaks became the Quorum President (he has had that assignment for exactly 4 weeks, or 28 days), he is the 28^th man to serve in that assignment, and the length of his tenure already puts that tenure as the 27^th longest in Church history.

This is in view of the fact that the shortest tenure for a Quorum President is that of Joseph F. Smith, who served for only a week between the death of Lorenzo Snow and his ordination as Church President. At that time, the calling of an Acting President had not been established, and any senior apostles serving in the First Presidency resulted in the most senior apostle in the Quorum, in this case, Brigham Young Jr., serving as Quorum President. Interestingly enough, one of Joseph F. Smith’s first actions as President of the Church was to officially establish the practice of calling the most senior member of the Twelve the Acting President if the Quorum President was also serving as a counselor in the First Presidency.

Getting back to President Oaks, who is less than a month into his calling as Quorum President, he will reach two other tenure milestones by the end of this year. Those will occur on Sunday September 16, 2018, when his tenure length will exceed that of President David O. McKay (at which time he will have served for 8 months and 2 days), and on Monday October 22, 2018. There are several other milestones President Oaks will observe next year (5 to be exact), and those will be detailed in further updates.

Moving on, we next will explore where President Monson stood in terms of his tenure length and age among the other 15 Church Presidents of this dispensation at the time of his death on January 2, 2018, and then discuss President Nelson’s age and tenure milestones as the new Church President. At the time of President Monson’s passing, his tenure length spanned 9 years, 10 months, and 30 days. 8 days ago (February 3) would have marked his 10 year anniversary as Church President, and, as already noted, a Face-to-Face Event with President Nelson and his wife that was scheduled for that day was subsequently postponed.

At the time of President Monson’s passing, he was also 90 years, 4 months, and 12 days old. In terms of his tenure and age records, he was the 8^th longest-serving Church president, the 16^th in birth chronology (although the subsequent ordination of the older but healthier President Nelson has resulted in President Monson being the 17^th in birth chronology), and he was the 7^th oldest until President Nelson’s ordination as well, and is thus now the 8^th.

Moving on now to President Nelson, he has, of course, been the Church President for 28 days, since his ordination and the setting apart of President Oaks both occurred on January 14 of this year. At the time of his ordination (as I may have already observed), he was the second-oldest but perhaps most healthy man of his age to take the mantle of the Church presidency.

I have already noted that he is the 16^th in birth chronology, and he ranks as the 5^th oldest Church president overall. I am confident we will see him reach many milestones. He seems to keep himself busy, as my blog posts since his ordination have shown that his Brethren have trouble keeping up with him. And I am glad that he has announced his intention to live as long as the Lord wills him to, so I feel confident he will reach many milestones.

Looking towards the future, he will only observe one milestone this year, and that will occur exactly 8 months from today, when his tenure length will have exceeded that of President Howard W. Hunter. But in 2019, he will observe one age milestone and one tenure milestone merely 2 days apart in July.

Turning our attention now to a discussion of the updated apostolic statistics, at the time of President Monson’s passing, he and his counselors still ranked as the 3^rd longest continuously-serving First Presidency in history. President Nelson and his counselors will have a long time to wait before their service length even reaches the top 13 longest periods in Church history. The current 13^th longest tenure is held by the First Presidency that consisted of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, with a length of 6 years, 3 months, and 6 days.

Our current First Presidency will thus only join this list of what will then be the top 14 on Monday May 6, 2024, by which time President Nelson would be just 4 months and 3 days away from becoming the first centenarian Church president. Given his health and vigor, he and his counselors could reach that milestone or any of the three others they would observe later that year. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

That wraps up my coverage of the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Church President, and the First Presidency, so that's all 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.