Highlights of a major year in Church news
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
For the first time in 25 years, a counselor in the First Presidency died while in office. President James E. Faust, second counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley for 12 years and a General Authority for 35 years, died Aug. 10, 2007, at age 87 at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Succeeding President Faust as second counselor in the First Presidency is President Henry B. Eyring, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve for 12 years, who was sustained to his new calling at the 177th Semiannual General Conference on Oct. 6, 2007. A General Authority for 22 years, President Eyring also served seven years in the Presiding Bishopric and three years as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
With the call of President Eyring to the First Presidency, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Presidency of the Seventy was called to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve. Elder Cook was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy in 1996, to the First Quorum two years later in 1998, and to the Presidency of the Seventy on Aug. 1, 2007.
The previous counselor in the First Presidency before President Faust to die in office was President N. Eldon Tanner, who passed away in 1982 at age 84 while serving as first counselor to President Spencer W. Kimball. President Tanner also served as first counselor to President Harold B. Lee and second counselor to Presidents David O. McKay and Joseph Fielding Smith. The last second counselor to die in office was President Charles W. Nibley, who died in 1931 while serving as second counselor to President Heber J. Grant.
At President Faust's funeral in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Aug. 14, which President Hinckley said was "a day of sorrow," the Church president paid tribute to his "close friend and wise and able counselor."
President Hinckley said his association with President Faust went back perhaps 50 years when each served as counselors in different stake presidencies and attended regional welfare meetings. "As we worked together, we became increasingly better acquainted. His incisive mind, his compassion of feeling for those in distress quickly became apparent. I watched him as he progressed up the ladder of Church administration. And in 1995, when I was called as president of the Church, I knew I wanted him for a counselor."
President Hinckley said President Faust's "wisdom was deep and profound. It came of long experience in many fields. He brought with him the mind of a lawyer, and the compassion of a Church leader."
As President Hinckley conducted the first session of the October conference, he noted the passing of President Faust. "He was an extremely able man, a man of great faith and capacity," President Hinckley said.
Also in 2007:
• President Hinckley — who became the longest-lived Church president in history in November 2006 — has kept up a busy schedule of activities, including participating on his 97th birthday on June 23, 2007, in the dedication of a new building on the BYU campus, named in his honor. The Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center was built in a 12-month period with donations from more than 70,000 Church members. A time capsule was placed in the building, and President Hinckley put into the capsule items of significance of his life and work.
• Two major milestones were reached during the year. President Hinckley, speaking to 118 new mission presidents at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on June 24, 2007, announced that the Church had reached 13 million members. He also announced that an estimated 1 million missionaries have served throughout the world since the Church was organized in 1830, of which nearly 400,000, or 40 percent of all missionaries who have served in this dispensation, have entered the mission field since he became president of the Church in 1995.
• In 2007, more than 50,000 missionaries were serving in 145 nations, in 164 languages.
• The Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple was rededicated on Nov. 4. In addition, construction was started during the year on three new temples after groundbreaking ceremonies, and an announcement was made that a temple would be built in El Salvador, bringing to 136 the total number of temples in operation, under construction or in planning stages.
• Ground was broken for temples in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on June 9, 2007; in Kyiv, Ukraine, on President Hinckley's birthday, June 23; and in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Aug. 4. The First Presidency announced on May 23 that the fifth temple in Brazil would be built in Manaus in the Amazon Basin.
• The 140-year-old Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square, which was closed in January 2005 for extensive renovation and remodeling, was reopened in April 2007 after being rededicated by President Hinckley on March 31, during the Saturday afternoon session of general conference.
• It was a busy year for the Tabernacle Choir. On June 21, 2007, 310-plus members of the choir, along with 60 members of the Orchestra at Temple Square, embarked on a tour of four U.S. states and one Canadian province, where it received standing ovations and high praise.
Directing the choir in an encore number at the Ravinia Festival near Chicago, was "a powerful experience," said Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago's Catholic Diocese. In Cincinnati, Ohio, the choir joined forces with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra at the Riverbend Music Center. Pops conductor Erich Kunzel, who shared the directing of the two musical organizations with choir conductors, called the Tabernacle Choir "the most magnificent choir in all the world. I've never conducted anything this beautiful. It was such a joy."
On the two-week tour, the choir and orchestra performed before a total of 50,000 people in nine concerts. In addition to concerts in Chicago and Cincinnati, the choir performed in Toronto, Ontario; Chautauqua, N.Y.; Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn., and Memphis, Tenn.
• During the year, the Church provided many tons of food and other relief supplies to several nations of the world hit hard by natural disasters. As it has done for many years, the Church quickly sent in emergency supplies, as well as provided long-term assistance in some cases, to ease suffering caused by such disasters as flooding in Mexico and Washington, wildfires in California, and an earthquake in Peru.
Following a massive earthquake in Peru in August, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve said that ongoing assistance is provided not because the Church has endless resources, but because "the hearts of the members want to help."
