SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Leaders of worldwide religions generally keep on the helm properly previous retirement age, nevertheless it’s not typically you discover centenarians overseeing main faiths.

That’s what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has as of Monday when church president Russell M. Nelson turned 100. He had already turn into the oldest president ever of the Utah-based religion three years in the past and now turns into its first to hit the century mark.

“Age, knowledge and non secular authority go collectively,” mentioned Angie Hong, a program director for Management Training at Duke Divinity Faculty.

Pope Francis is 87. The Dalai Lama is 89. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who leads Jap Orthodox Christians worldwide, is 84. Ali al-Sistani, the grand ayatollah who’s the senior spiritual determine for the world’s 200 million Shia Muslims, is 94.

On Nelson’s one centesimal birthday, the church commemorated the event with a particular broadcast in his honor. Additionally, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican and church member, declared Monday to be “President Russell M. Nelson Day” within the state.

“President Nelson is a frontrunner not solely in Utah, however internationally. He has labored tirelessly to construct bridges of understanding and kindness and has led a life filled with household, religion and selfless service,” Cox mentioned in an announcement.

The president of the denomination, recognized broadly because the Mormon church, oversees every part from the its multibillion-dollar monetary holdings to church doctrine and coverage. He is also believed to be a prophet of God and serves till dying.

By custom, the brand new president is chosen from among the many Quorum of The Twelve Apostles, one of many religion’s high governing our bodies — particularly its longest tenured member. Chosen to hitch the Quorum in 1984, Nelson has spent 4 a long time within the higher echelons of church management.

In 2018, he grew to become the church’s seventeenth president at 93, making him the second oldest on the time to ever assume the function. Students and people who have recognized him for many years say he wasted no time in reshaping the church, together with overhauling worship providers and establishing new temples.

Nelson’s superior age has not been an awesome concern primarily due to his dynamic management, mentioned Patrick Mason, a faith and historical past professor at Utah State College. He depicted the church’s significant service alternatives for its older members as considered one of its strengths.

“There’s a normal sensibility that there’s knowledge and steadiness that comes with age,” Mason mentioned.

Although the church continues to broaden, Nelson’s one centesimal birthday displays the broader composition of its growing old white male management. Nelson’s high two counselors — considered one of whom is his presumed successor — type what the church calls “the primary presidency” and are each of their 90s. In complete, six of the 15 males within the church’s high management panels are 80 or older.

Through the years, some have argued the church would profit from youthful management in a altering world. Others have defended the established order and celebrated the knowledge and non secular maturity the church’s growing old leaders carry to their roles.

Hong, the management skilled from Duke, mentioned good non secular leaders are those that “all the time look to mentor and lift up youthful leaders.”

This occurs throughout religion traditions. In Hinduism, for instance, growing old leaders from numerous sects select and information their successors, whereas nonetheless remaining lively and concerned in day-to-day operations.

In a ceremony at church headquarters in Salt Lake Metropolis, shut family members, church leaders and clergy of different faiths paid tribute to Nelson.

Nelson has been each the “Lord’s mouthpiece” and “unfailingly type and composed, light and forgiving,” mentioned Jeffrey Holland, appearing president of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“We have a good time the candy, sturdy, history-making 100 years of your life. We’ve got come to say we love you and we are saying it within the identify of Jesus Christ,” Holland mentioned.

Nelson within the months main as much as his one centesimal birthday known as on church members to achieve out to somebody in want in honor of the biblical parable of a shepherd who left the 99 sheep he was tending to to be able to discover the one which was misplaced.

“He’s a really loving chief. He’s straightforward to like,” Dallin H. Oaks, a high-ranking church chief who’s subsequent in line to turn into church president, mentioned in a pre-recorded video interview aired in the course of the broadcast.

Nelson mentioned in his personal video that he wasn’t certain why God had allowed him to reside 100 years.

“The size of your life isn’t as necessary because the form of life you reside. For every of us, even for a 100-year-old man, life passes rapidly. My prayer is that you’ll let God prevail in your life,” Nelson mentioned.

Rank-and-file church members mentioned they had been impressed by Nelson’s capability to guide at 100 and are blessed to nonetheless see him and listen to him converse.

Church member Mark Chavez praised Nelson’s administration for constructing a slate of latest temples throughout the globe and for appointing folks from totally different nations to management positions, ushering in a extra internationally centered period for the U.S.-based religion.

Nelson grew to become recognized for main the church in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing its century-long ties with the Boy Scouts of America when the group determined to permit brazenly homosexual youth members and grownup volunteers in addition to transgender girls and boys.

The church, beneath Nelson, mentioned it welcomes LGBTQ+ members however maintains that same-sex marriage is a sin.

Final month, the church issued new insurance policies for transgender members, barring them from serving as monks or academics, working with kids or staying at youth camps in a single day. Beforehand banned from being baptized, they could now solely use single-occupancy restrooms at church meetinghouses.

One in every of Nelson’s first instructions as president was a name to members of the religion to cease utilizing the shorthand names “Mormon” and “LDS” as substitutes for the complete identify of the faith.

Born in Salt Lake Metropolis in 1924, Nelson joined the faith as a younger grownup. As a health care provider at age 22, he served a two-year Military medical tour of responsibility in the course of the Korean Battle after which he resumed a profession that included being director of thoracic surgical procedure residency on the College of Utah.

“He walks a really light line between underscoring what the doctrine states whereas expressing love for all concerned,” mentioned Sheri Dew, Nelson’s biographer and govt vice chairman of the Deseret Administration Company, which is owned by the religion.

“You could not agree with every part he believes,” she mentioned. “However any honest evaluation of his life would conclude that he has actually tried to make life higher for hundreds of thousands of individuals.”

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Bharath reported from Southern California. Mead Gruver contributed to this report from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

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