Hello again, everyone! As most of you are almost certainly aware, I have provided updates on the latest apostolic data (specifically relating to lifespan or tenure length milestones) roughly every seven weeks. Having last done so on January 24 (through utilizing two consolidated documents), it is time to publish the second update for this year.
As with that last update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, information on the tenure length records for each of the 28 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and information on the longest-serving First Presidencies (which will not be updated with the First Presidency as presently constituted until 2024), in addition to the longestg-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). Since my last u4pdate, it is worth noting thas of at the current Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as constituted beginning on March 31, 2018 (when Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares were sustained), have officially become the 14th group listed among the longest continuously-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They will move up on that list 3 times throughout the rest of the year.
In a similar manner, the current members of the First Presidency, together with the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with that group of 15 apostles as it has been constituted as of the last day in March of 2018, have not only served long enough to make the list of longest, continuously-serving apostolic groups, but they have already moved up from the 14th to the 12th position on that list, and are set to move up 3 more times by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the second part of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the apostolic groups overall, in addition to the average ages of each group and apostolic nonagenarians (with 2 of the current 15 apostles being on that list, and the timing noted for when each of the other 13 apostles will join that list).
Hopefully this shared data will be of interest to you all, and again, I offer an open invitation to anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. I will, of course, conFitinue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of all such reports.
That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made 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, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Hello again, everyone! On this Sabbath Day, a First Presidency letter read over the pulpit about the April 2021 General Conference indicates that "special Easter programming" will follow the regular sessions. I am still evaluating what that might mean in terms of needed adjustments to my General Conference predictions. But in the meantime, I am happy to also pass along several other Church news updates that speak for themselves:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2021-03-14/new-stake-presidents-23-chile-wyoming-ecuador-brazil-el-salvador-peru-mapleton-utah-arizona-california-206472
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-03-14/scott-taylor-tapping-glass-strengthen-family-204577
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-03-14/president-oaks-elder-christofferson-spanish-young-adults-faith-hope-christ-206490
In conjunction with the above report, I was aware that Elder Christofferson had served a Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking mission in Argentina, and that he and his wife had also served in several international area presidencies while he was a General Authority Seventy (from 1993-2008), but I was somehow not aware of the fact that both President and Sister Oaks were also fluent Spanish-speakers. That could have something to do with the two-year stint in which then-Elder Oaks served as president of the Philippines Area, but it still came as somewhat of a surprise to me. It is wonderful to think about how much the current composition of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve has brought so many multilingual leaders to those top two Quorums in the Church.
The Church News also provided, slightly later than usual, the latest edition of "In Case You Missed It":
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-03-14/week-in-review-salt-lake-temple-renovation-modifications-area-leadership-women-206635
Meanwhile, the Church's Easter 2021 Initiative has been more fully detailed by the following article from the official Newsroom:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/2021-easter-initiative-begins
There may or may not be temple updates to note. If there are any, they will follow shortly. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.
As both an update on its' status and through photographic evidence available as of March 11, the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site has noted that preliminary construction processes have been completed for the Syracuse Utah Temple. This suggests to me that we could see a formal groundbreaking announcement for that temple being made at some point this week or next week, with the groundbreaking following in April or May, as perhaps the first temple to have a groundbreaking in 2021. You can see these updates reflected on the following pages:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/syracuse-utah-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/syracuse-utah-temple/photographs/
Additionally, the pages for the Pago Pago American Samoa and Neiafu Tonga Temples note that both are in the government approval phase, so hopefully groundbreakings for both temples could be held in May or June, if all goes well:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/pago-pago-american-samoa-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/neiafu-tonga-temple/
I wouldn't count out the Port Moresby Papua New Guinea or Lindon Utah Temples from the prospect of groundbreakings in July, August, or September. And if the concept site plan for the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple is approved, that may accelerate things there. I can't rule out the prospect that the relocation of the Deseret Peak Utah Temple may also yield faster approval. And although it's harder to gauge how soon things will occur for the Phnom Pehn Cambodia and Tallahassee Florida Temples, we could see something for either or both announced sooner rather than later, if all goes well. I'm also watching for more official news on the temples in Nairobi Kenya, Managua Nicaragua, Salvador Brazil, Lagos Nigeria, and Bahia Blanca Argentina Temples, in addition to a few others that I'd rather not mention by name until I have additional information. In any case, with 9 temples currently in the queue that seem to be a lock for groundbreakings to occur this year, and at least the 5 others I mentioned for which the announcement of official details may be coming down the pike soon, I continue to be optimistic that 2021 will be another huge year for temple developments.
Parenthetically, given that we have seen full-scale efforts begin for 5 of the 10 temples that had that process pending following their groundbreakings last year, I am hopeful that at least 2 of the remaining 5 could see full-scale construction begin as well before the April 2021 General Conference. Stay tuned for more on all of these developments as I find out more about them. For now, my thanks once again to you all.