- The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles leads conference for the first time since 1951.
- President Dallin H. Oaks will preside as the senior apostle during the conference.
- General conference continues as usual with messages and music from the Tabernacle Choir.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will lead general conference this weekend for the first time since 1951, making it a rare one for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As millions of church members gather Saturday and Sunday around televisions, radios and livestreams to watch and listen to leaders share messages of the gospel of Jesus Christ, many thoughts will turn inevitably to President Russell M. Nelson.
The church’s 17th president died on Sept. 27 at age 101. The weekend’s conference will be followed by his public viewing Monday and his funeral on Tuesday.
President Nelson’s death automatically triggered the instant dissolution of the First Presidency. It also spawned a new apostolic interregnum, a period after the death of a prophet where the apostles lead the faith before the reorganization of the First Presidency with a new church president.
President Dallin H. Oaks, who had been serving as first counselor in the First Presidency, is now the senior apostle and will preside over conference this weekend as president of the Quorum of the Twelve.
That makes the faith’s 195th Semiannual General Conference one that is unique.
The last time a president of the quorum presided over conference was April 1951, the only other time a president died shortly before general conference.
President David O. McKay began that conference as president of the Twelve. He ended it as the church president, because the church combined President Smith’s funeral with the conference and sustained President McKay.
The church is not expected to reorganize the First Presidency this weekend because President Nelson’s funeral will happen afterward.
The last time a full conference was presided over by a president of the Quorum of the Twelve was April 1880. Brigham Young, the second church president, died in 1877, and the First Presidency was not reorganized for three years.
John Taylor led the April 1880 conference as quorum president. He was sustained as the church’s third president in October 1880.
President Oaks is the senior apostle and is the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as he presides over this weekend’s conference.
President Henry B. Eyring, who has served as second counselor in the First Presidency, and President Jeffrey R. Holland, who was the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve, have returned to the quorum as have their previous titles of Elder Eyring and Elder Holland.
The conference is expected to continue as usual, with speakers selected from among the apostles — who church leaders sustain as prophets, seers and revelators — and other general authorities and general officers of the church.
“General conference provides an opportunity to receive personal revelation as general church leaders give counsel and direction from the Lord,” stated a Sept. 4 letter from the First Presidency to congregations worldwide.
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will provide music at several sessions, with other choirs of church members singing at other sessions.
Saturday’s three conference sessions will be held at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. MDT.
Sunday’s sessions will be begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. MDT.
Each session will be streamed live in 80 languages on the broadcasts page of ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The Deseret News will stream conference at Deseret.com and will provide coverage through a live blog, talk summaries and stories about each day’s major themes.
There also have been general conferences where there was no church president and the quorum president did not preside.
The last time was October 1888, between the presidencies of John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff.
After President Taylor’s death, the quorum president, President Woodruff, did not attend conference for several years because of conflict with the U.S. government over plural marriage.
Instead, other members of the Twelve presided at conferences.
“It is ordained that we be tried in a fiery ordeal,” Elder Lorenzo Snow said at the October 1888 conference, where he presided in President Woodruff’s place. “It cannot be avoided. Otherwise we cannot receive our celestial crowns.”
President Woodruff was sustained as the church president at the April 1889 general conference, where he presided.
Since then, the faith has had a living church president during every general conference, though some missed general conference sessions due to health considerations.