On Tuesday, January 16th, presiding apostle Russell M. Nelson will address Latter-day Saints and hold a press conference. At 9:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time he will broadcast a message to members, and the press conference will be held afterwards at 10:00. Both events will be translated into 29 languages. The event is unprecedented.
As reported in the Deseret News, the First Presidency automatically dissolved upon President Monson’s death. Since then, the Church has been led by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, an interim period referred to as “apostolic interregnum.” As the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Russell M. Nelson is presiding over the Church.
The quorum’s current 13 members are expected to meet this weekend. They could vote to organize a new First Presidency or to continue the interregnum that has been in place for 11 days now.
Either way, there will be new leadership on Tuesday — a new First Presidency or the introduction of an ongoing interregnum.
For most of the Church’s past, when a prophet has died, the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve has quickly become the new prophet and has called two counsellors. Then new apostles were called to fill any vacancies.
Longer time periods occurred at the beginning of the Church’s history, especially upon the death of first prophet, Joseph Smith, and the death of John Taylor and calling of Wilford Woodruff. It has been 11 days since the death of Thomas S. Monson. If a new First Presidency is not called by Tuesday, it will be the longest interregnum since President Woodruff became prophet.
If, as expected according to historical pattern, Russell M. Nelson is named the new prophet and forms a new First Presidency by Tuesday, Elder Dallin H. Oaks will be the senior apostle. If Elder Oaks were to be called as a counselor, then M. Russell Ballard would become acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve.
Tuesday’s message will be broadcast live on LDS.org and on the church satellite system in Cambodian, Cebuano, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Thai, Tongan, Spanish, Ukrainian, and ASL, with closed captioning in English, Mormon Channel, Canal Mormón (Spanish), MormonNewsroom.org, KSL Ch. 5, the KSL-TV app, BYUtv, BYUtv Global, KBYU Ch. 11, and BYUtv International. In addition, audio broadcasts will air on KSL Newsradio (1160 AM and 102.7 FM) and BYU Radio. The broadcast and press conference will also be streamed live at DeseretNews.com.
