Two new Apostles were added to the leadership of the Mormon Church yesterday. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the leadership of the LDS Church, the 15 highest positions are for “lifers”–that is, those who are chosen to become Apostles serve until they die. The senior apostle (age 94) is the President and Prophet of the Church, and the rest stand in a line of morbid musical chairs, in the order they were called to the Apostleship, advancing one step closer to the Presidency with each death above them. Thus, of the top fifteen leaders, one is in his nineties, five are in their eighties, six in their seventies, two in their sixties, and one is 52.

A couple of comments: not only are most of these leaders old, they are also white and male. All but one of the Apostles is U.S. born. I am happy to see that a Church with the majority of its members living outside of the United States has selected a non-American as one of its senior leaders, but why a Western European, when the growth is centered in places like the Phillipines, sub-Saharan Africa, and most especially in Latin America?

I’m trying to imagine being in the youngest Apostle’s shoes. David Bednar is currently the president of BYU’s Idaho campus. The call has to be more of a shock to him than to Dieter Uchtdorf (in Bednar’s inaugural address to the Church membership, he said that when he heard his name mentioned in the roll-call of Apostles, he suddenly remembered the Sesame Street song, “one of the things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong…”). Uchtdort was serving in the hierarchy immediately below the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (as a President of the Seventy). Imagine being 52 years old and a successful university administrator, and within hours having your entire future rearranged. Quite a paradigm shift–I can imagine why he would feel so humbled.

Personal note: There are now two Apostles whom I haven’t met. Up until Saturday, I had spoken personally with all of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. :^)