Item Detail
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10011
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5
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7
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English
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Notes on Apostolic Succession
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Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
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Summer 1987
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20
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44-57
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Here Heath details some of the controversies associated with succession in the Presidency of the Church from John Taylor to Heber J. Grant. Before Taylor became President, the Quorum of the Twelve apostles led the Church for three years, but Taylor did reinforce the earlier doctrine that the Twelve are the leaders when the President dies, and that the councellors to a former President were subservient to the Quorum. The period before Wilford Woodruff's succession was marred by several debates, including a suggestion by Heber J. Grant that Joseph F. Smith would succeed, and long discussions over George Q. Cannon and his business dealings. Woodruff, and apparently the majority of the Twelve, consistently argued for the succession of the senior apostle, and in the end Woodruff left a persuasive written document supporting this kind of succession. It would be referred to often in later years. He also established procedures to reintegrate counselors who had previously served as members of the Quorum of the Twelve back into that quorum, and he laid the groundwork for shortening the apostolic presidency. Lorenzo was the first president to be 'ordained' by the apostles. He contributed significantly to the succession question by impemeneting the Woodruff instructions for a shortened apostolic presidency, establishing a formal ceremony for setting apart a president, and defining and clarifying seniority questions in the Quorum. When Joseph F. Smith succeeded, a troublesome question arose concerning the role of the patriarch, as Smith had his brother, John Smith, who was the patriarch, set him apart as president of the Church. A natural question arose as to whether this was right. Smith also believed that the patriarch should be sustained before the Twelve in general conferences. The Twelve disagreed with this. However, at the October 1902 the patriarch was sustained, for the first time, as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Smith thus gave the Church patriarch and elevated importance even though there was no change in the order in which he was sustained in conference. President Heber J. Grant's selection set the precedent for formal nomination, seconding, and setting apart by the three senior apostles, and this has been followed ever since.
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Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith
Defender : The life of Daniel H. Wells
Excavating Early Mormon History : The 1878 History Fact-Finding Mission of Apostles Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt
Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times
Succession by Seniority : The Development of Procedural Precedents, in the LDS Church -
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve : A Succession of Continuity
Joseph Smith III's 1844 Blessing and the Mormons of Utah
J. Reuben Clark : The Church Years
The Alienation of an Apostle from his Quorum : The Moses Thatcher Case
The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844
The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith