The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are about to set a record.
ChurchBeat | Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021 | First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Working on Another First Barring any changes, President Russell M. Nelson is preparing to preside over another first for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ChurchBeat reader Seth Jackson of Billings, Montana, gets credit for bringing this to my attention. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the historic nature of President Nelson’s temple dedication assignments. Seth pointed out that adding in those he has assigned to rededicate temples, too, provides a fuller, even more interesting picture. He was right. President Nelson has assigned Elder Gary E. Stevenson to dedicate the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple in May. When that happens, for the first time in church history, all 15 members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will have participated in temple dedications or rededications. No previous prophet’s administration has come anywhere close to spreading that responsibility across the entire senior leadership of the church. In fact, under President Nelson 10 of the 15 apostles have dedicated a temple for the first time in their ministries. (See chart. Bold signifies a leader dedicating a temple for the first time. Rededicated temples are listed in italics with an asterisk.) | FROM OUR SPONSOR Conversations With Today’s Most Inspirational and Influential Voices Listen, ask and learn with Mike Conley and Joe Ingles from the Utah Jazz in this VIP limited engagement series presented by Deseret News and Utah Business. Through December 31, get 50% off green or purple seats with promo code HOLIDAY50. Buy tickets for the Jan. 20 event. With speaker sessions and photo ops, this speaker event makes for a great gift for the holidays.
|
What I’m Reading ... My family has loved attending “The Forgotten Carols.” Its future depends on Michael McLean receiving a critical organ transplant. People have purchased 52,000 chickens and nearly 1 million meals as donations through the church’s Giving Machines so far this year. See what else people have donated and how much money they’ve given. Elder Michael Fauber, shot five times in an unprovoked attack at an Alabama Latter-day Saint meetinghouse on Dec. 3, is out of the hospital and back home. Here are four highlights from the Christmas special the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square taped last weekend for broadcast in 2022. Read more about how the choir’s leadership pulled together artists and the concert in just two months. The church will break ground for the Freetown Sierra Leone Temple on March 19. See an illustration of what it will look like and a map of where it will be. It was an interesting week for Latter-day Saint sports executives. Darrell Bevell is the new interim coach of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Danny Ainge is the new alternate governor and CEO of the Utah Jazz. Utah State University’s police chief resigned after making what the school called “reprehensible and unacceptable” comments about Latter-day Saint women to the football team. LDS Living published an interesting piece about some lesser-known visual depictions of Joseph Smith. Naomi Schaefer Riley has written another column for the Deseret News, this time about how singer “Billie Eilish’s exposure to porn is unfortunately common — and destructive.” This story says the owner of the New York Mets bought the baseball that went through Bill Buckner’s legs in 1986, leading to the Mets winning the World Series over the Boston Red Sox. Fortunately, I was serving a church mission in Germany at the time and didn’t agonize over that loss like most Red Sox fans. But the tidbit is staggering: The owner was told the ball would cost $100,000 to $150,000, so he authorized his representative to buy it. The representative came back to report he bought it, all right — for $410,000. Yikes. My wife and I enjoyed Steven Spielberg’s new version of “West Side Story.” This story provides a different faith perspective on the movie. | This holiday give the gift of Deseret Magazine, showcasing the unique perspective of the West as part of the national conversation. | Copyright © 2021 Deseret News, All rights reserved. |