October 2018 Apostolic Speaking Order Predictions: Part One--Preface and History in Recent General Conferences

Hello again, everyone! Although there have been a few significant Church news stories that I have felt deserve mentions on this blog in the last few days, I have not been able to post about those in view of some minor health issues that have slowed me down. Nothing too serious, thank goodness. We found out that my iron levels are currently deficient, and that the kind of deficiency I have would not be effectively treated by iron supplements, so we are in the process of getting approval from my insurance for an infusion. Hopefully that approval will be granted within the next week or less. But the lack of energy I have dealt with as a result of that deficiency is the reason I have not posted any new content in the last five days.

It is time to remedy that situation. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been working on refining my predictions for the October 2018 General Conference. Although that conference is still around four months away, I am continuing those efforts.

I am posting this now to request comments on the most likely potential speaking order for members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I have determined to split this subject into two posts. In this first one, I will set the background for what has molded my thoughts on this subject, and in the second, I will be presenting a couple of scenarios that seem most likely to occur for the next General Conference.

As I mentioned previously, there have been patterns in recent years to the rotation by which the 12 men in that Quorum have spoken in the five general sessions of conference. It has typically been tradition that 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will speak in both of the morning sessions, with 4 on Saturday Afternoon, 1 during the Priesthood Session, and the final 3 on Sunday Afternoon. But there have been a handful of exceptions to that rotation recently.

This has been especially true for the General Conferences in October 2015 and April 2018, when we saw 3 and 2 new apostles respectively announced. To preface my observations about what could occur for the October 2018 General Conference, I will be discussing the 7 General Conferences from April 2015 to April 2018.

And I will approach this discussion in a rather unique way.Since my intent is to determine how many apostles might speak in each of the five general sessions for October 2018, I will be giving a brief rundown by session of how many apostles spoke. That may sound confusing at first, but you will see what I mean.

We start with the Saturday Morning Session. In 4 of the 7 relevant General Conferences, we have seen two members of the Quorum of the Twelve speak. The 3 exceptions to that were April 2015, October 2017, and April 2018. Whether or not the October 2018 General Conference is regular or an exception in terms of this session will likely depend on whether or not any members of the Quorum of the Twelve speak during the Women's Session. Right now, I am assuming that will not be the case, but I could be wrong. With that in mind, I have felt that we will likely see 3 members of that Quorum speak during the Saturday Morning Session.

We now move on to the Saturday Afternoon Session. Again here, 4 of the 7 General Conferences saw 4 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak during that session. For 2 of the remaining 3, 3 apostles spoke during the Saturday Afternoon Session. The one real exception for this session was the April 2018 General Conference, in which only 2 members of the Quorum spoke during that session.

For the Priesthood Session, 6 of the 7 saw 1 member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak. The one exception to that was last April, when 2 Quorum members spoke. That may not be a determining factor for the October 2018 General Conference, unless the First Presidency assigns one Quorum member to speak during the Women's Session. It will be interesting to see what happens in that regard.

Regarding the Sunday Morning Session, although 2 Quorum members have typically spoken, 4 of the last 7 General Conferences have been atypical in that regard. Due to the calls of 3 new apostles in October 2015, 4 members of the Quorum (including one veteran apostle) spoke. In April 2015 and October 2017, the absence of 1 apostle due to ill health resulted in only 1 Quorum member speaking during that session. And last General Conference, in view of the different format, no members of the Quorum of the Twelve were asked to speak on Sunday Morning.

Quick sidenote here: That last exception was likely due to the different format because of the announced changes in policy, the call of two new Quorum members, and to allow the entire First Presidency to speak on Sunday Morning. For that reason, I have felt confident that the October 2018 General Conference will see the typical 2 members speak during the Sunday Morning Session.

That brings us to the Sunday Afternoon Session. In 4 of the 7 General Conferences, the typical final 3 Quorum members spoke in that final session. In 2 others (October 2015 and October 2017). As was the case for other sessions mentioned above, the April 2018 General Conference was a huge exception to the rule of 3 Quorum members speaking.

For the first time that I can recall, we heard from almost half of the 12 Quorum members (5 total) in a single session. Again, that was more due to the policy announcements, the entire First Presidency speaking during the Sunday Morning Session, and the fact that two new Quorum members were called. I fully anticipate that, barring anything unexpected, we will hear from the final 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October.

This concludes the first part of my coverage of this subject, so 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.