When a prophet dies, the transition to the next prophet is orderly and simple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“A people reverently close a grave, dry their tears, and turn their faces to the future,” said one of those prophets, the late President Spencer W. Kimball.
The established pattern is that the senior apostle becomes the next prophet.
“When a president of the church passes away, there is no mystery about who is next called to serve in that capacity,” said President Russell M. Nelson in 2018 when he was introduced as the church’s 17th prophet and president.
President Nelson died Sept. 27. His funeral was held on Tuesday. President Dallin H. Oaks is now the senior apostle. He is expected to be ordained soon as the church’s 18th prophet.
Armed with that knowledge, anticipation still grows among the church’s 17.5 million members. The First Presidency dissolved at President Nelson’s death, and the Quorum of the Twelve is temporarily the church’s supreme governing body. This period is called an apostolic interregnum.
Not since 1889 has the church waited this long for the ordination of a new prophet.
It is assumed, therefore, that the apostles will meet shortly to decide whether to reorganize the First Presidency with a prophet at its head.
What follows is a description of the meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles where they choose, ordain and set apart a new prophet.
Calling the meeting and where it happens
The first step is that a meeting of the Twelve is called by the senior apostle, who at the death of the most recent prophet becomes the presiding high priest of the church and the president of the Quorum of the Twelve.
The meetings typically happen in the Salt Lake Temple, which is now under renovation, so a different location will be used.
President Gordon B. Hinckley described the meetings where a prophet is called during a talk he gave in the first general conference after his ordination in 1995.
“Three weeks ago today all of the living ordained apostles gathered in a spirit of fasting and prayer in the upper room of the temple,” he said. “Here we sang a sacred hymn and prayed together. We partook of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, renewing in that sacred, symbolic testament our covenants and our relationship with him who is our divine Redeemer.”
How the apostles open the discussion of succession
The apostles sit in chairs in a circle and discuss two items, Elder D. Todd Christofferson told the Deseret News.
“The two questions discussed are, one, should we proceed now in the reconstitution or organization of the First Presidency?” he said. “And if that’s affirmative, then the second question is, who should occupy that position as president?
From 1830 to 1889, the time between the death of one prophet and the ordination of the next was measured in years.
The pattern changed to a transition measured in days in 1898, when President Lorenzo Snow called a meeting of the quorum 11 days after the death of President Wilford Woodruff.
Each apostle in the circle spoke in favor of reorganizing the First Presidency on that day, reported Elder George Q. Cannon.
“After hearing their views,” he said, “President Snow then arose and stated to the brethren that he had, since the death of President Woodruff, felt led to present himself before the Lord, clothed in his priestly robes, in the temple, and the Lord had revealed to him that the First Presidency should be organized.”
The apostles felt President Snow’s statement was evidence the Spirit of God had inspired them and approved their decision to move forward.
Another church leader described how President Kimball called the Twelve together to consider the same questions four days after the death of President Harold B. Lee in 1973.
“As each member of the Twelve spoke,” Elder N. Eldon Tanner said, “he expressed himself as feeling that now was the time to reorganize the First Presidency and that President Spencer W. Kimball was the one whom the Lord wanted to preside at this time.
“The sweet Spirit of the Lord was present in rich abundance and there was complete unity and harmony in the minds and spoken words of the brethren. The only purpose and desire was to do the will of the Lord, and there was no question in anyone’s mind but what the will of the Lord had been expressed.”
A motion, an ordination and tears
The next step is a motion.
In that 1973 meeting, Elder Tanner reported that, “Elder Ezra Taft Benson then made the formal motion that the First Presidency of the church be reorganized and that Spencer W. Kimball be sustained, ordained and set apart as the president, prophet, seer, revelator and as trustee-in-trust of the church.
“This motion was seconded and unanimously approved.”
Elder Gary E. Stevenson described what happened in 2018.
“In this sacred and memorable meeting, following a well-established precedent in unity and unanimity, the brethren were seated by seniority in a semicircle of 13 chairs and raised their hands first to sustain the organization of a First Presidency and then to sustain President Russell Marion Nelson as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
It was Elder Christofferson’s first experience with a succession meeting. He said he felt the strong impression during the meeting that not only the process was inspired but it was the right time to set apart President Nelson.
“It was more than just, this is how we do it,” he said. “It was the Lord’s will and direction and the witness of his Spirit in the moment that I found very powerful.”
The 12 apostles next stood around President Nelson and laid their hands on his head. President Oaks, as the next senior apostle, ordained and set him apart as the prophet.
“The significance of that moment settled upon me with great power as I laid my hands upon his head,” President Oaks told his biographer.
Several of the apostles have shared their experience in that moment.
When President Oaks began the blessing by saying, “Russell M. Nelson,” Elder Dale G. Renlund had a Pentecostal feeling.
“I wish everybody could have been there,” he said. “But it just melted me. It made me weep.”
Elder Quentin L. Cook called the moment “incredibly powerful” and said both he and Elder Renlund had tears running down their eyes.
More apostolic reflections
Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke about the moment at the following general conference.
“I too confirm that the power of heaven was with us in the upper room of the temple as we prayerfully encircled President Nelson and felt the undeniable approval of the Lord upon him,” he said.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has participated in these meetings three times.
“I can just say it is one of the most transcendent moments a human being could have in this world,” he told the Deseret News, “to be in the temple with those apostles and a new president. I can say that (when) he’s set apart, and our hands are on his head, is just clearly one of the rarest and sweetest experiences one human being could have with another.”
President Nelson shared his experience, too.
“Words are inadequate,” he said, “to tell you what it felt like to have my brethren — brethren who hold all the priesthood keys restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith in this dispensation — place their hands upon my head to ordain and set me apart as president of the church.
“It was a sacred and humbling experience.”
Selecting counselors for the First Presidency
Following the ordination of the new prophet, he selects his two counselors in the First Presidency and the Twelve votes to sustain them.
President Nelson asked the other apostles to give him time to pray, then he interviewed each separately about their feelings on his counselors and those who might fill the two empty chairs in the Quorum of the Twelve.
Once the counselors are chosen, the new prophet sets apart each one. He also sets apart the second most-senior apostle as the new president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Or, if he has called that apostle to the First Presidency, he sets apart the third most-senior apostle as the acting president of the Twelve.
“This was a deeply sacred experience, with an outpouring of the Spirit,” Elder Stevenson said of his first experience with this part of the meeting in 2018. “I offer to you my absolute witness that the will of the Lord, for which we fervently prayed, was powerfully manifest in the activities and events of that day.”
The proving journey to senior apostle
President Nelson also spoke in 2018 about the process by which an apostle reaches the church presidency. Seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve is based on when an apostle is called, not age.
“Each day of an apostle’s service is a day of learning and preparing for more responsibility in the future,” President Nelson said. “It takes decades of service for an apostle to move from the junior chair to the senior chair in the circle. During that time, he gains firsthand experience in each facet of the work of the church.
“He also becomes well acquainted with the peoples of the earth, including their histories, cultures and languages as assignments take him repeatedly across the globe. This process of succession in the leadership of the church is unique. I know of nothing else like it. That should not surprise us, because this is the Lord’s church. He does not work after the manner of men.”