By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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Joseph Smith became President of the Mormon Church before he reached his thirtieth birthday and Brigham Young, the second President, took over the reigns of leadership while he was still in his forties. The early Mormon Church was led by a group of men who were relatively young. In fact, seven of the original Twelve Apostles were only in their twenties when they were called to that ministry—four of them were only twenty-three years old.

Today, things have completely charged. The Church is now led by a group of men who are very old. David O. McKay, the ninth President, lived to be ninety-six. The tenth President, Joseph Fielding Smith was ninety-five when he passed away. Harold B. Lee, the eleventh President, died at the age of seventy-four. The current President, Spencer W. Kimball, is now eighty-seven. He is in very poor health and is hardly able to function, yet he is still sustained as the “Prophet, Seer and Revelator” of the Mormon Church. It seems that there is no retirement for the Prophet nor for the members of the Council of the Twelve—Apostle LeGrand Richards is now ninety-six years old. A man could be completely senile and still be sustained as the “Living Prophet.”

While the Apostles and the First Presidency will not retire from their positions, they have placed seven members of the First Quorum of the Seventy on emeritus status since 1978. This means, of course, that these men have been “retired or honorably discharged from active duty because of age, infirmity, or long service, but retained on the rolls.”

The most interesting case of placing a Church leader on emeritus status occurred on October 6, 1979, when the Church Patriarch was released. In the afternoon session of general conference, President N. Eldon Tanner announced:

. . . we now designate Elder Eldred G. Smith as a Patriarch Emeritus, which means that he is honorably relieved of all duties and responsibilities pertaining to the office of Patriarch to the Church. (Ensign, November 1979, page 18)

Since the Mormon leaders did not appoint anyone to replace Eldred G. Smith, it appears that they may be abolishing the office of Patriarch to the Church. This is an office which was supposed to be established by revelation. Joseph Fielding Smith, who later became the tenth President of the Church said that “The office of Patriarch to the Church is one of two hereditary offices in the Church, . . .” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, page 160). President Smith felt that this office would “last forever in the Church”:

It has always been understood, and so the revelations declare, that this office is hereditary. . . .

The statement that the duty of Hyrum Smith was to the Church forever, because of his family, evidently conveys the thought that he would succeed to the office of Patriarch and that it should continue in his posterity to the end of time, for, surely, it would have to continue in this way to last forever in the Church upon the earth among mortal men. (Ibid., page 164)

In any case, the following question comes to mind: If the Mormon Church can have a “Patriarch Emeritus,” why can’t it have a “Prophet Emeritus”?

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