As always, before we begin the discussion of that updated
data, I wanted to recognize that there may be many of you who are not
interested in the information I will be providing. So I will not in any way be offended
or bothered if any of you prefer to bypass this information (which will, as
always, be covered over the course of two posts).
As usual, all data is current as of today (Sunday July 1,
2018). This update will again feature the data in the same order as previous
updates. We will start with some data about the Presidents of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, then turn our attention to the Presidents of the Church. After
discussing those things, the first post will end, and the second (to be
published shortly after the first) will then highlight the latest data about
all 15 of our apostles, including information on those who have had a birthday
recently and those whose birthdays are getting closer.
So let’s begin with some information on President Oaks’
current tenure length as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which
will include exploring how soon he will move up on this list. The length of his
service has currently spanned 6 months and 29 days. As noted in previous
updates, he will be marking 2 additional tenure milestones before the end of
this year, and will be marking 5 others in 2019.
Just over a month from now, on Sunday September 16, he
will become the 26th longest-serving Quorum President, as by that
time he will have served longer than President David O. McKay. After another
month, on October 22, he will become the 25th longest-serving Quorum
President, having served longer in that capacity than President Gordon B.
Hinckley. Then in 2019, he will mark 5 milestones, one in April, two others in July
(which will be observed two days apart), and the remaining two in November, and
December. I will mention the specifics of those milestones closer to that time.
Moving on now to President Nelson, since he was ordained
and set apart as Church president on the same day he set apart President Oaks as
Quorum President, his tenure has spanned 6 months and 29 days as well. He is
now 93 years, 11 months, and 3 days old.
He will observe the first tenure length milestone of his
presidency in just under two months from now, on Thursday October 11 (when he will
have served longer than President Howard W. Hunter). He will observe both
another tenure-related and his first age-related milestone two days apart in
July of 2019, with subsequent milestones more spread out in the years following
that. And again, I will be detailing those more specifically closer to the time
when they will be reached.
As I have also noted before, by all accounts, President
Nelson remains healthy, vigorous, and fully involved in the day-to-day work of
moving the Church forward. And as far as I know, neither of his counselors (who
are both 7-8 years younger than he is) are suffering from any major health
issues, which means that these Brethren will likely be serving together for at
least the next several years, and I could easily see them at least making the
list of the longest-serving First Presidencies in the Church, which will, as
previous noted, occur on Sunday April 1, 2024.
And by the end of that same year, not only will the
current First Presidency reach a couple of other milestones, but President
Nelson will by then have become the first centenarian apostle and Church
president. I know that, as recently as last year, I had offered my opinion
that, if President Nelson became president of the Church, he would likely not
serve for very long, but given the fact that he is considerably more healthy
now than President Monson may have been for the last 5-7 years of his life (if
not the entire decade of his presidency).
And as a former heart surgeon, it has been very rightly
pointed out that President Nelson would know how to take care of himself. With
that in mind, I would not be surprised if President Nelson is still around in
6-8 years, or even lives longer than that.
As for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, except for
President Ballard (who will be 90 on October 8, which is 3 months and 1 week
from today, and who appears to be in fairly good health as well, though he may
not be as healthy as President Nelson), all other apostles are younger than 80.
With that in mind, the current members of the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles, who have served together since March 31 of this year, will
most likely easily make the list of the longest-serving apostles on that same
day in 2021. By the end of that same year, they will have moved up 3 spots on
the list. I will give more specific data in this regard closer to that time.
By the end of 2021, the current group of apostles in the
First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will have made and moved up
on the list of other apostolic groups to become the 12th longest-serving such
group in Church history, and other milestones will be reached in the years
following.
All of those milestones will depend on how long
Presidents Nelson and Ballard live and serve, and on how much they (or anyone
else) are affected by health issues. I continue to track the health and
ministry of these Brethren and will keep you posted.
With that said, I want to conclude this portion of the
update. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome
and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what
you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please
feel free to subscribe.
Until my next post (which should be the second one on
this subject and will be published here within the next few minutes), I wish
each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in
everything you do.
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