Current Apostolic Statistics: Part One—Updated Data for President Oaks, President Nelson, and Longest-Serving Apostolic Groups

Hello again, everyone! I continue to welcome comments on any previous posts (particularly any feedback any of you have on my April 2019 General Conference predictions), but I have a promise to keep. It is time once again to bring you all updated information on the latest apostolic statistics. This data will again be published in two posts. While I hope most of you will find this information interesting and enlightening, there may be some of you who are not interested in the data I will present. Consequently, I will not in any way be offended or bothered if any of you skip over this post and the next one.

The last time I provided such an update was 6 weeks ago, on Sunday November 4. Given that today is Sunday December 16, this will be my last such update for this year. Just a quick side-note here: Sharing these updates every 6 weeks has become somewhat of a tradition on this blog, one which I hope to continue for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, I will plan to post my next update (which will be the first such update of 2019) relating to this data on Sunday January 26. As usual, all data is current as of today. That said, there have been some very significant changes relating to such information since my last such update, so let’s get right into all of that.

I wanted to interject a personal note here in relation to the data in these updates, which I may or may not have previously mentioned. For most of the time within which I have shared the information I track in posts like this, the relevant dates I mentioned previously, on which the lifespan or tenure length of the current apostles or Church Presidents would move up to the next spot on those lists, was determined by when such lifespans or tenure lengths exceeded that of the individuals or groups they would be passing.

But not long ago, I realized that the Church Presidents or apostles whose ages or tenure lengths exceeded those of our current apostles would not be moving up on that list (since their lifespans or tenure lengths ended with a death or due to other factors), while the life-span or tenure length of our currently-serving Church President and other apostles continues. Therefore, the determining factor needed to be the date on which lifespans or tenure lengths were equal to that of the Church Presidents or apostles in the next spot up on such lists. I apologize if that seems confusing, but hope you will see what I mean as this update continues.

We will first look at President Dallin H. Oaks’ tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then turn our attention to where Church President Russell M. Nelson stands among the 16 previous Church Presidents in terms of his age and tenure length. That will be followed by some observations about the tenure lengths of our current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and all currently-living ordained apostles as a group. The more specific data about upcoming apostolic birthdays and the long-form and decimal ages of our 15 current apostles will then follow in a second post.

President Oaks has now served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for 11 months and 2 days, and he has not moved up among the other Quorum Presidents since my last update. As noted previously, he will only be observing his next milestone on that list in April 2019. To put that into perspective in terms of these updates, if I continue to provide them every six weeks, there will be two more updates of this kind before that milestone is reached. He will then observe two additional milestones two days apart in July, followed by one each in November and December of next year. More specific details on those milestones will be forthcoming closer to the time.

As mentioned previously, the length of President Oaks’ service will depend not only on his health and life length, but, of course, the health and life length of President Nelson will factor into that as well. Insofar as I am aware, not one of our 15 current apostles is having any health-related issues at the present time. That said, the health of our apostles is something else I am monitoring, and I will be sure to bring updates about that to you all as I become aware of them.

Shifting our focus 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 11 months and 2 days as well. He is now 94 years, 3 months, and 7 days old. He will observe both his second tenure-length and his first age-length 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.

In the meantime, as also noted previously, the current First Presidency will only be joining the list of longest continuously serving First Presidencies in Church history on Saturday April 20, 2024, so I will be outlining their future milestones on that list closer to the time. As for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the current members will mark 3 years together on March 31, 2021, at which point they will join the list of the longest-serving Quorums of the Twelve Apostles in Church history. I will likewise be providing updates on those future milestones closer to that time.

Interestingly enough, less than two months prior to that, the 15 apostles will make the list of the longest-serving such group (the exact date is February 8, 2021). 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, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are in accordance with the established guidelines. 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 will be the second half of this update that 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.