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Show Succession Succession to the presidency of the church is an interesting and divine process. On April 6, 1974, a solemn assembly will be held as part of the 144th annual general conference. President Spencer W. Kimball, 12th president of the church, will be sustained by the membership of the church. Soon after President Kimball was set apart and ordained as president of the church, Elder Bruce R. McConkie addressed the students at Brigham Young University. He spoke on the subject, Succession in the Presidency." Elder McConkie emphasized that, This is the Lords church and He is running it. No prophet can be called by any other power, and no prophet can be released by any other power. Reading a statement of President Wilford Woodruff relative to the passing of the noble and faithful from this life into the labors that await them in the realms Elder McConkie applied the lesson to the death of President Harold B. Lee. Elder McConkie told the students: I would like, if I may properly be guided, to talk to you about succession in the presidency and to let you have a feeling and an understanding of what is involved when the Lord calls a prophet to other spheres of activi- -' ty. Let us begin with Lie sure and certain conviction in our souls that this is the Lords work. This is the Lord's church and He is running it. There isnt any question at all about that. And so, for reasons that are not wholly and completely known to us, although we do have some vision and understanding of what is involved, on Wednesday, December 26, 1973, the Lord reached forth His hand and touched His servant. President Harold B. Lee. President Lee had teen in good health; he had been vigorous and active up to that point in his life. But on that day the Lord said tc him: Come hither. I have other work for you to do in anothei sphere. I have greater labors and a greater work for you here than youve been doing in mortality. Difficult as it is for us to envision fully why President Lee was taken, we have no difficulty in accepting it In Presidency and of understanding that he is going forward in the Lord's work in another sphere. I would like to read a statement by President Wilford Woodruff relative to the passLig of noble and good and faithful from this life info the labors that await them in the realms ahead. Presi- dent Woodruff says: 'The same priesthood exists on the other side of the veil. Every man who is faithful, is in his quorum there. When a man dies and his body is laid in the tomb, he does not lose his position. The Prophet Joseph Smith held the keys of this dispensation on this side of the veil, and he will hold them throughout the countless ages of eternity. He went into the spirit world to unlock the prison doors and to preach the gospel to the millions of spirits who are in darkness, and every apostle, every seventy, every elder, etc., who has died in the faith, as soon as he passes to the other side of the veil, enters into the work of the ministry, and there is a thousand times more to preach there inan there is here. 1 think this next, though said anciently, has particular application to President Lee s pus.iig. I have felt of late as if our brethren on the other side of the veil had held a council, and that they had said to this one, and that one, Cease thy work on earth, come hence, we need help, and they have called this man and that man. It has appeared so to me in seeing the many men who have been caiied from our midst lately. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 22, pp. When President Lee passed he was attended by President Marion G. Romney, his second counselor, and President Spencer W. Kimball, the president of the Council of the Twelve. President N. Eldon Tanner was in Arizona at the time. Brother Romney, as the representative of and counselor to President Lee, was in complete and total charge at the hospital. He gave President Lee a blessing. He felt the spirit of peace and satisfaction, the calm assurance that whatever eventuated would be right. He did not promise President Lee that he would be healed. The president had become ill very rapidly, just in a matter of hours or moments. Shortly after this blessing, he passed away. At the moment he passed, Brother Romney, in harmony with the system and the established tradition and custom of the Church, stepped aside, and President Spencer W. Kimball was 333-334- .) then in complete charge and had total direction. President Kimball was at that moment the senior apostle of God on earth. And as the last heartbeat of President Lee ceased, the mantle of leadership passed to President Kimball, whose next heartbeat was that of the living oracle and presiding authority of God on earth. From that moment the church continued under the direction of President Kimball. It was not required, nor was it requisite or needed, that the Lord give any revelation, that any special direction be given. The law was already ordained and established God does not look down each morning and say, The sun shall rise. He has already established the lav; he has set the sun in the firmament; and the sun operates in harmony with established law in its rising. And so it was with the transfer of leadership from President Lee to President Kimball. "Now when the President of the Church passes on. the First Presidency is disorganized, and the mantle of the reins of presidency go to the senior leadership man left and to the Council of the Twelve as a body; in effect the Council of the Twelve then becomes the First Presidency of the Church and so continues unless and until a formal reorganization takes place. These words I. read to you from President Joseph F. Smith: " There is always a head in the church, and if the presidency of the church are removed by death or other cause, then the next head of the church is the Twelve Apostles, until a presidency is again organized of three presiding high priests who have the right to hold the office of First Presidency over the church; and, according to the doctrine laid down by President Wilford Woodruff, who saw the necessity for it, and that of President Lorenzo Snow, if the President should die, his counselors are then released from that presidency, and it is the duty of the Twelve Apostles to proceed at once, in the manner that has been pointed out, to see that the First Presidency is reorganized, so that there may be no deficiency in the working and order of the priesthood in the church of God. (Conf. Rep., Apr. 1913, pp. "Harmonious with that policy, that counsel, and that instruction which has been followed in previous instances the Council of the Twelve met in the upper room of the Salt Lake Temple on Sunday, Dec. 30, at 3 p.m. for the purpose of reorganizing the First Presidency of the church. Normally, in that upper room there are three chairs occupied by the First Presidency and 12 chairs in a semicircle in front of them occupied by the members of the Council of the Twelve. On this occasion, however, there were 14 chairs in the semicircle, because there were 14 brethren present who had been sustained and ordained and set apart as members of the Council of the Twelve. We took our places in those chairs, and President Kimball presided in the meeting, which lasted for about 36 hours. In the course of this meeting. President Kimball explained the business to be transacted, the things that might be done if the brethren felt so guided and led. He explained that when the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, V years went by before Presk dent Young was formally chosen and installed as president of the church. He noted that almost that period went by between President Young and President John Taylor and between President Taylor and President Wilford Woodruff, but that in each succeeding instance the time had varied from four to 11 days, and we were meeting on the fourth day after the passing of President .) Lee. "He expressed himself as to what should be done, and he said that the proposition to be first considered was whether the First Presidency should then be reorganized or whether the church should continue to function with the Council of the Twelve as its presiding officers. He then invited each member of the Twelve, commencing with Elder Ezra Taft Benson and continuing around the circle to rr ?, to arise in turn and express himself frankly and fully and freely as to what ought to be done. Ill tell you what in thought content and substance wa3 said by all of the brethren unitedly on that occasion, but if I may, let me preface my statement by reading an account of what happened in the meeting of the Council of the Twelve on the first occasion when they considered the problem of reorganizing the First presidency of the church. There have, of course, been 11 such meetings in Contfnaed on page t WEEK ENDING MARCH 23. 1974 CHURCH 7 |