SALT LAKE CITY — LDS Church members sustained the faith's three new apostles Saturday, but when will those men be ordained?
Members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will lay their hands on the head of each new apostle — Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Elder Gary E. Stevenson and Elder Dale G. Renlund — to ordain them as "traveling councilors" and "special witnesses of the name of Christ."
The order in which they join the quorum is critical because it determines seniority within the quorum. Seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve determines who eventually may become president of the quorum and church president. The two senior apostles hold those roles — President Thomas S. Monson is the senior apostle today, having been ordained in 1963. Ordained in 1984, President Russell M. Nelson is second-most senior apostle and became president of the Twelve in July, days after the death of his predecessor, President Boyd K. Packer.
The church revealed the order of the three new apostles in the Twelve through a series of press biographies about them.
Elder Rasband will be the senior of the three. That makes him 10th out of 12 in the quorum now and the 98th apostle since the quorum formed in 1835.
"Because he was the first of the three apostles to receive his 'call,' his place in the Quorum of the Twelve will reflect that seniority," his bio said. "Quorum members’ seniority is based on when they were called to service, not their age."
Elder Stevenson will be next, No. 99 overall.
"Elder Stevenson, in seniority, is the 11th of the 12 apostles in the quorum," according to his bio.
The quorum's new junior apostle is No. 100 overall, Elder Renlund.
Elder Rasband was released Saturday as the senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy. A replacement was not named.
Elder Stevenson will continue to serve as presiding bishop until church leaders name a replacement, according to another church news release.
So when will they be ordained to what Elder Stevenson called a "knee-buckling" position? The church announced Saturday only that it will happen this week, but a review of the ordination dates of the members of the First Presidency and Twelve indicates the event likely will take place Thursday, the day of the regular joint meeting of the two governing church bodies, a meeting in the Salt Lake Temple known as the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Every single living LDS apostle was ordained on the Thursday after the general conference when he was sustained by church membership, with two noteworthy exceptions.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks was still serving as a member of the Utah Supreme Court, so he was ordained a month after he was sustained in the April 1984 general conference.
More unusually, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was ordained in June 1994, then sustained by church membership at the following general conference that October.
Those exceptions proved the rule that church leadership may alter past practices when necessary.
Email: twalch@deseretnews.com