How the Newest Latter-Day Saint Apostle Ties a Church History Record for the Quorum of the Twelve
President Russell M. Nelson created a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that matches a church history record when he called Elder Patrick Kearon last week as the newest apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elder Kearon’s calling and ordination marks the first time in 117 years that three members of the quorum have been from outside the United States.
Elder Kearon is a British-Irish national. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf was born in Germany and Elder Ulisses Soares is a native of Brazil.
Together, the three of them make the quorum as international as it ever has been in its 188-year history.
Since it’s only the third time this has happened in church history, let’s explore the two previous instances:
- In October 1889, Elders Marriner W. Merrill, who was born in Canada, and Anthon H. Lund, who was from Denmark, joined a quorum that already included Elder George Teasdale, who was born in England. They served together for 12 years, until Elder Lund was called into the First Presidency in October 1901.
- In July 1904, Elder Charles W. Penrose of England was called to join Elders Merrill and Teasdale in the Quorum of the Twelve. Those three served together for 17 months, until February 1906, when Elder Merrill died.
No iteration of the Quorum of the Twelve previous to those two periods or since them has had more than two members born outside the United States.
Until now.
President Nelson called Elder Kearon, who was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, from his role as senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy on Thursday.
Shortly afterward, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve ordained Elder Kearon as an apostle. He boarded a plane later in the day, and on Friday, he made his first public appearance as the quorum’s new junior apostle by speaking at BYU-Hawaii’s fall commencement.
Now, the rest of the story is that there have been two periods in church history where four apostles born outside the United States were serving in senior church leadership across the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.
- President George Q. Cannon, who was born in England, served as a counselor in the First Presidency during that same 1889-1901 period where Elders Teasdale, Merrill and Lund were in the Quorum of the Twelve.
- Then, by the time of that same 17-month period from 1904-06 where Elders Teasdale, Merrill and Penrose were in the Twelve, President Lund had left the quorum and was serving in the First Presidency as second counselor.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was first organized in 1835. The first member of the quorum born outside the United States was John Taylor, who was ordained an apostle in December 1838.
Latter-day Saint scripture says apostles are called with the same calling as Jesus Christ’s ancient apostles, to be “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world.”
(Wilburn Talbot’s 1985 book “The Acts of the Modern Apostles” was an indispensable resource for this research.)
