Yesterday, the Church announced the calling of nine new General Authority Seventies and 58 Area Authority Seventies. Among the nine new General Authority Seventies, the Church called its first General Authorities from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Nigeria: Thierry K. Mutombo and Adeyinka A. Ojediran, respectively. Prior to yesterday's announcement, the Church had only called two Black African men as General Authority Seventies, namely Elder Joseph W. Sitati from Kenya in 2009 and Elder Edward Dube from Zimbabwe in 2013. There were 92 General Authority Seventies (seven of whom were in the Presidency of the Seventy) prior to yesterday's announcement, whereas now there are 101 General Authority Seventies altogether. The number of General Authority Seventies in the Church has increased in recent years after many years of no significant increase. For example, there were 73 General Authority Seventies in late 1996, 80 General Authority Seventies in October 2005 and 81 General Authority Seventies in early 2013. For more information about General Authority Seventies, click here.
The Church reported 266 Area Authority Seventies prior to yesterday's changes in international Church leadership. With 58 new Area Authority Seventies announced and six Area Authority Seventies released, the worldwide total for Area Authority Seventies is now 318. The number of Area Authority Seventy has rapidly increased in the past 25 years from 137 in 1997 to 195 in 2005 and 224 in 2012. For more information about the role of Area Authority Seventy, click here.
7 comments:
Did Elder Bednar Reveal the location of the Russia Temple?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3429286963752685&set=p.3429286963752685&type=3&theater
Just kidding, someone at Church HQ got their islands mixed up. It should be the Sapporo Japan temple in Hokkaido.
Two of the new general authorities were presidents of the California Ar CD adia Mission.
I served in the California Arcadia Mission. Interestingly enough, former General Authorities have also been the President, such as Gary J. Coleman and Bradley D. Foster. Tad R. Callister, also of the Seventy was a councilour in the Mission Presidency when I was there. Years earlier Elder Gerald E. Melchin was a President of the Mission.
The outgoing mission president in Arcadia is a son of one general authority and son-in-law of another. His name is David Wells. He used to be in my state's presidency here in Detroit.
Elder Matthew S. Holland became a mission president in 2018. So Raleigh Mission and Baltimore Mission where Elder Thierry K. Mutombo was president will both need new mission presidents ASAP.
I forgot to mention the outgoing YM president, Stephen Owen, is also a former president of the Arcadia mission
Matt, another point relevant to your discussion of the increase in the number of GA 70's is that only 3 are likely to be given emeritus status in October: Elder Clayton of the Presidency of the 70, plus Maynes and Falabella. (Last year had 9 and next year there are 6, including two more members of the presidency, for comparison.)
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