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Tad Talk
One of the biggest surprises as a reporter covering the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hit me in March when I spoke with most of the apostles who gathered in the Eternal City for the landmark dedication of the Rome Italy Temple.
They were thrilled to be there together, and as I probed about the reasons behind those feelings I learned something new to me.
I found that while the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles all work in the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City and attend weekly meetings together, including each Thursday in the Salt Lake Temple, the 15 men in these two groups don’t feel they are together or work with each other often. (Thursday meetings will move to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in January when the temple closes for four years for renovations.)
That surprised me. The sense I gained is that these men have their own 15 separate ministries, albeit clearly within the umbrella of the church’s doctrine and under the direction of the First Presidency and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Let me be clear: These 15 church leaders are united. The weekly Thursday temple meeting is called “the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” and the unity in that council and the deference to priesthood authority cannot be overstated. The council’s decisions, which become church policy, must be reached unanimously, as is required by Latter-day Saint scripture.
There is clear authority, which is quickly apparent to anyone who covers church leadership: The First Presidency presides in the council and makes assignments to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles makes assignments to quorum members. Junior quorum members regularly defer to more senior quorum members.
On most Fridays, the 15 apostles travel to 15 different parts of the world to minister along with their wives. They hold leadership conferences, reorganize stakes, dedicate buildings, review the church’s strength in each area, direct missionary work and more. Unless the assignment is longer, they return to Salt Lake City Sunday night and have Monday off. On Tuesday, in separate quorum meetings, they often share with each other what they learned from visits around the world.
On occasion, two apostles will travel and work together. But it is the regular, weekly ministering apart from each other in far-flung places that was a distinct reason why President Russell M. Nelson’s decision to invite all of them to Rome was, in the words of Elder Ronald A. Rasband, a lifetime thrill.
Several people close to church leadership have told me that a hallmark of President Nelson’s tenure as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from July 2015 to January 2018 was a keen ability to foster additional quorum unity. And, where the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles operate as two separate, distinct quorums but for those Thursday meetings in the temple, President Nelson has made a specific effort to improve unity between the two groups since he became the faith’s 17th president and prophet in January 2018.
This was clear in Rome. As the apostles arrived at the Rome Italy Temple on Monday, March 11, I found I couldn’t turn around without running into one in the visitors’ center or on the temple grounds. In my head, I called it an apostle-rich environment. There were hugs, laughs, broad smiles and requests for special photos, such as one with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Quentin L. Cook, who served their missions together in England. And, of course, there was the now iconic photos of the 15 together in front of Thorvaldsen’s 13 statues — the Christus and original 12 apostles — and in front of the temple.
But there is another, ongoing example of President Nelson’s effort to unify church leadership. He is taking each of the other 14 church leaders with him, one at a time, on a high-profile, large-scale ministering trip. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told me last month there is a clear element of training in these trips. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I think this is a direct result of what President Nelson felt he learned while traveling on a long tour of the South Pacific in 1976 with President Spencer W. Kimball.
Here is a list of trips President Nelson has taken and who he has taken with him: |
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2018
Trip 1: April 10–23 (Global ministry tour) — Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Trip 2: June 8–10 (Alberta, Canada) — Elder Ronald A. Rasband
Trip 3: Aug. 17–19 (Eastern Canada) — Elder Neil L. Andersen
Trip 4: Sept. 1–2 (Dominican Republic) — Elder Dale G. Renlund
Trip 5: Sept. 16 (Seattle, Washington, devotional and British Columbia, Canada) — President Henry B. Eyring
Trip 6: Oct. 19–28 (South American tour) — Elder Gary E. Stevenson
Trip 7: Nov. 18 (San Antonio, Texas, devotional) — Elder David A. Bednar |
2019
Trip 8: Feb. 10 (Glendale, Arizona, devotional) — President Dallin H. Oaks
Trip 9: March 8–9 (Rome to meet Pope Francis) — President M. Russell Ballard
March 11 (Rome Temple dedication) — all 15 brethren
Trip 10: May 16–24 (South Pacific tour) — Elder Gerrit W. Gong
Trip 11: June 9 (Orlando, Florida, devotional) — Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Upcoming
Trip 12: Aug. 24–Sept. 2 (South American tour) — Elder Quentin L. Cook |
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I suspect we will learn soon about trips including Elders D. Todd Christofferson and Ulisses Soares, who have not yet accompanied President Nelson on a major trip, mass devotional or have an upcoming trip with him announced. That said, President Nelson afforded Elder Soares a unique opportunity earlier this month.
On June 2, Elder Soares became the first apostle from outside the United States to dedicate a temple in his home nation when he dedicated the Fortaleza Brazil Temple.
“I am so grateful to the First Presidency — they could have sent any other apostle,” Elder Soares said. “But they gave me the opportunity, they gave me the assignment, and it means a lot — it is my own country, my own language and my own people.”
As my colleague with the Church News, Scott Taylor, pointed out, the Fortaleza Brazil Temple dedication marked the first time all dedicatory sessions were conducted completely in a language other than English, including all talks, prayers, hymns and the dedicatory prayer. |
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What I’m Reading ... Max Scherzer may be the world's best pitcher, but he certainly isn’t the world’s best bunter. Scherzer tried bunting a ball in batting practice only to have it ricochet off his bat and break his nose. Curt Daniels, my late high school baseball coach who doubled as a major league scout and coached Tony Gwynn in the minor leagues, would be apoplectic at Scherzer’s technique. I don’t understand those who teach bunting like Scherzer bunts. Keep the bat parallel to the ground and your the fingers of your top hand behind the bat — that way you are protecting not only your nose but your pitching hand too. SMH. (Shaking my head.)When I went to Oakland in May for the media tour of the renovated Oakland California Temple, I learned that many in the community use the large temple grounds for a number of reasons, including plays. The San Jose Mercury News published a story this week about another use: Catholic quinceañeras. Mercury News calls it a unique blending of religious cultures.I’ve been waiting for this story to drop. It’s about a much-needed new digital history database called Century of Black Mormons created by W. Paul Reeve, the Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies in the history department of the University of Utah, compiling complete records of early black Latter-day Saints, including original photos and documents. |
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