An Overview of Upcoming Apostolic Milestones (and One Temple Development) Which Will Occur in July

Hello again, everyone! Although I am still planning on posting later this evening or tonight a series of comparative posts to share the temple construction progress which has been made between the beginning of this second quarter of 2019 (April 1) and its' end, which will occur today, I wanted to now share an overview of upcoming developments which will occur in the Church over the next week or two. First of all, with today being the last day in June, and with it being a Sunday, I am reasonably certain that the Brethren will begin their annual July recess starting tomorrow or within the next week.

But while that recess is in effect, there will be many significant developments which will take effect. On Wednesday of this week, Church President Russell M. Nelson will be observing his first (and only) 2019 prophetic tenure milestone. On that day, he will have served as Church President for as long as Harold B. Lee, the 11th President of the Church. As a result, on that date, President Nelson will replace President Lee as the 15th longest-serving Church President. Just two days later, President Nelson will observe his first (and only) 2019 prophetic age milestone. On that date, his lifespan will match that of 13th Church President Ezra Taft Benson, and he (President Nelson) will thus become the 4th oldest prophet in Church history.

Then, on the first Sunday in July, President Dallin H. Oaks, who is simultaneously serving as both the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as First Counselor to President Nelson, will be observing his second 2019 Quorum Presidential tenure milestone, at which point his tenure as such will match that of President Spencer W. Kimball. As a side note on President Kimball, prior to his service as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he had served during the prophetic administration of 10th Church President Joseph Fiielding Smith as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, due to President Harold B. Lee then serving in the same dual roles which President Oaks now fills.

Getting back on topic, when President Oaks' tenure as Quorum President exceeds that of President Kimball, he (President Oaks) will then be the 23rd longest-serving Quorum President in Church history. Although he will be observing his next Quorum Presidential tenure milestone two days later, I wanted to interject a reminder here that the Hong Kong China Temple is scheduled to close for its' 3-year renovation process on Monday July 8. I am assuming that the rededication of that temple may occur in mid-2022, though that estimate could possibly be pushed back to mid-to-late 2022, depending on what the renovation involves. But I am hoping that everything related to that process will go smoothly, and might even proceed ahead of schedule, which would be wonderful.

Having noted that, as I mentioned above, the day following the renovation closure for the Hong Kong China Temple, President Oaks will be observing his third Quorum Presidential milestone. On that date, his tenure as such will match that of the second (and shortest) tenure of the current 22nd longest-serving Quorum President, Brigham Young Jr. In another post on this blog or a previous thread thereof, I had mentioned the unique circumstances relating to why Brigham Young Jr. had served two nonconsecutive terms as Quorum President, but let me provide that context again.

In the early days of the Church, the matter of how to determine apostolic seniority was not as clearly established as it is today. For the first 75 years of Church history (spanning roughly from 1830 to 1905), the understanding of apostolic seniority evolved as Church Presidents sought guidance on that subject. At the time the Quorum of the Twelve was first constituted, seniority was determined by age rather than ordination date, and excommunications or disfellowshipments were factored into seniority after the fact. Beginning in 1875, Brigham Young determined that the date when an apostle first joined the Quorum of the Twelve and continuous service were the more important factors. As a result, the seniority of Brigham Young Jr., who was ordained an apostle before Joseph F. Smith, but joined the Quorum of the Twelve after Joseph F., were reversed.

Additionally, if one or more senior apostles were serving in the First Presidency, the most senior apostle not serving in the First Presidency was set apart as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, rather than as Acting President. When Lorenzo Snow became the 5th President of the Church in September 1898, Franklin D. Richards, as the next most senior apostle, was designated Quorum President, and the next two in apostolic seniority (George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith) were serving as First and Second Counselors respectively to President Snow. After serving as Quorum President for almost 15 months, President Richards passed away, and, as a result, Presidents Cannon and Smith became the second and third in apostolic seniority.

But since both were still serving in the First Presidency, and the designation of Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve had not yet been established, that left Brigham Young Jr. as the most senior apostle not serving in the First Presidency, and he thus was designated as the Quorum President. President Cannon then passed away in April of 1901, and Joseph F. Smith thus became the second in apostolic seniority, with Brigham Young Jr. still serving as Quorum President. President Snow then passed away himself in October of 1901. As a result of his death, his First and Second Counselors (Joseph F. Smith and Rudger Clawson, who had been appointed as such 4 days prior to the death of President Snow, and who were thus never formally set apart in those capacities) returned to their places in the Quorum of the Twelve.

With President Smith's return to the Quorum, since he was the more senior apostle to Brigham Young Jr., he (President Smith) assumed the assignment of Quorum President for the week between the death of President Snow and his (President Smith's) ordination as Church President. Once that ordination took place, Brigham Young Jr. then reassumed the assignment as Quorum President. Interestingly enough, it was President Joseph F. Smith's prophetic successor, President Heber J. Grant, who would establish the formal position of Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and, coincidentally, the first person to ever formally serve in that assignment was Rudger Clawson, the only man who served in the First Presidency for less than a week.

I apologize for that long-winded explanation, which was more lengthy than I meant it to be. But I hope it serves as sufficient explanation regarding why Brigham Young Jr. was the only apostle of the Church to serve two nonconsecutive terms as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. With that lengthy tangent taken care of (and again, my apologies for it),  I wanted to mention that, since I am providing this overview today, rather than doing a post following the observance of these 4 apostolic milestones and the renovation closure for the Hong Kong China Temple, I will likely opt to just note these milestones in comments on existing threads of this blog as they occur.

The one other July apostolic milestone will be marked on the last day of that month, at which time, President M. Russell Ballard will be observing his fourth (and final) 2019 apostolic nonagenarian milestone. As of that date, President Ballard's lifespan will match that of President Boyd K. Packer, and he (President Ballard) will thus become the 14th oldest apostle in Church history. The following Sunday will, of course, be August 4, on which date I will have my next apostolic milestone update published on this blog, which will be the fifth such update I have done during 2019. As part of that update, I will be providing an overview of the 3 apostolic birthdays which will be observed in August.

As you can see, just in terms of the milestones I mentioned here, a lot is happening during the 2019 recess for the General Authorities, which I imagine may include the other general authorities conducting the transfer of assignments that will go into effect on August 1. I also have little or no doubt that there will surely be other Church news and temple updates to report on as well. That coverage will likely include articles about Utah's Pioneer Day observations (which will be marked on July 24). It has been somewhat traditional for a member of the First Presidency to serve as grand marshal of the annual KSL "Days of '47 Parade", but there has been a time or two within the last decade when then-Elder/now-President Ballard has been asked to do so, in view of his familial ties to early Latter-day Saint pioneers.

For my part, I will do my level best to stay on top of all of these developments and to pass them along to you all in either new posts or the comment threads of existing posts. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Announces Initial 2020 Area Division

Hello again, everyone! I have breaking news to report right now. The Newsroom has shared an announcement from the First Presidency. Effective in August of 2020, the Africa Southeast Area of the Church will be divided into two separate areas: the Africa South Area, and the Africa Central Area. The announcement notes that this is being done because of the Church's significant growth that is occurring in the nations currently comprising the Africa Southeast Area. More specific details on this area split will be released closer to the time, but the one thing that is certain is that two 3-man area presidencies will be assigned for the two separate areas.\

My personal opinion on those assignments is that the First Presidency may ask 1 or 2 members of the Africa Southeast Area Presidency as it will be constituted in August of this year to continue in the newly-divided Africa South Area Presidency, while the remaining 1 or 2 members of that presidency would be called as the first leaders of the Africa Central Area, since that would allow Brethren with familiarity of all nations in the current Africa Southeast Area to bless the two split areas with their knowledge thereof.

If that were the only news I had to report, it would be reason enough to celebrate. But I also wanted to note a couple of other developments as well. For the last several weeks, lds.org has redirected to churchofjesuschrist.org. It appears that now, however, the only way to get to the Church's official website is to enter the new URL. Additionally, details have been announced about the final 2019 Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults, which will also serve as a Face-to-Face Event. As I noted previously, that event had originally be set for Sunday September 8, but has been pushed back a week to Sunday September 15, which will coincide with the dedication of the Lisbon Portugal Temple.

The featured guests for this Devotional/Face-to-Face event will be Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Seventy. Unless their assignments have changed or will change, Elder Soares is a member of the Missionary Executive Council and the Human Resource Committee, while Elder Christensen is President of the Utah Area (which will be a single area effective August 1 of this year) and as an Assistant Executive Director of the Missionary Department.  Based on the fact that they both have a role in missionary work within the Church, it would not shock me in any way if the focus on this devotional is how young adults can continue to be missionaries even after concluding their full-time service in the mission field.

And while I am on the subject of missionary work, that brings me to the other two articles I wanted to share. As many of you know, Elder John H. Groberg, now an Emeritus General Authority, served a full-time mission in Tonga, and would return a decade or two after that to serve as a mission president in the same area as well. A book has been published about his experiences, which has been the subject of the movie "The Other Side of Heaven". As preparations are underway for a sequal to be released (which will focus on his experiences as a mission president), Elder Groberg sat down with the Church News, professional golfer Tony Finau, and Elder Vai Sikahema, a newly-called area seventy, to discuss the powerful church growth in Tonga, and the impact that missionary work has had on each of them individually.

In the meantime, one other article continues coverage of the 2019 Seminar for New Mission Presidents, the latest of which features remarks shared by Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, who is both the Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric and a member of the Missionary Executive Council, and his wife, Carol, who covered 5 key points that both mission presidents and senior missionaries should remember when considering how senior couples can best be utilized during their missionary service. And for any who have missed any coverage provided on that Seminar, the full range of articles on that can be found in this special section of the Church News

I was grateful to bring these reports to you today. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will do my level best to keep bringing word of those to you all here as I become aware of such things. 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 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.

Preliminary Reports Provided on the 2019 Mission Leadership Seminar; Other Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! I am posting again now to share some major Church news stories which have crossed my radar within the last week. I will be covering new content from the Church News, then the News & Events page on the Church's website, then the official Newsroom. If there is any overlap in that coverage, I will try to note that as I go. With that said, let's dive right in to all of that.

First, the Church has provided preliminary reports on the 2019 Mission Leadership Seminar, which kicked off today with the traditional Sacrament Meeting. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who chairs the Missionary Executive Council, and Church President Russell M. Nelson offered remarks today. More will be reported on that seminar in the week ahead, which I will be sure to pass along as I receive word of them.

Several other recent reports on the ministry of our Church leaders can be found in the special section devoted to Leaders & Ministry. Among them are the newest edition of "This Week on Social", which featured social media posts from the following leaders: Church President Russell M. Nelson and his First and Second Counselors, Presidents Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring, respectively; Elders David A. Bednar, D. Todd Christofferson, and Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; and Sisters Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, and Michelle D. Craig, First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency.

I will let you all catch up on other highlights in that section that may interest any of you on your own time. In the meantime, there has been additional coverage provided of temple highlights, which can be found here. Similarly, there may be other stories of interest to some of you which I have not mentioned here, and those can be found here. Turning now to the stories on the News & Events page on the Church's website, it appears that most of those have been covered elsewhere, but if I missed anything, you can read about additional news here and also catch up on additional details that have been announced about scheduled events.

And finally, I cannot quite recall how much coverage I have recently provided on the latest news releases from the official Newsroom, but share the link to a list of those for anyone that wants to catch up on anything I might have missed. I should also probably note that, insofar as I have been able to ascertain, there has still not been an artist's rendering released or a construction time-frame offered for the Belem Brazil Temple, which, as previously noted, has been scheduled to occur on Saturday August 17 of this year. If and when such information becomes available, I will be sure to pass that along to you all here.

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 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.