While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Utah-based faith, two of the last three men chosen to join its second-highest governing body have lived most of their lives outside of the United States.
Mormon studies scholars say this trend speaks to church leadership’s increasing international focus.
On Dec. 7, church President Russell M. Nelson called and ordained Patrick Kearon to be the newest member of the faith’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This body operates under the First Presidency, which includes Nelson and two counselors, and together the groups make decisions for the entire church.
Kearon will fill the vacancy created by the recent death of M. Russell Ballard, who had strong ties to church history. Ballard grew up in Salt Lake City, also home to the faith’s headquarters, and was the great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith, brother of founder Joseph Smith.
In contrast, Kearon did not convert until he was an adult. He was born in England and has lived in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
Nelson has now chosen three apostles during his time as president. In 2018, Nelson called Chinese-American Gerrit W. Gong and Brazilian Ulisses Soares to join the quorum, which at that time was made up almost entirely of white Americans, many born in Utah. Gong was the first Asian-American apostle and Soares was the first from South America.
Matthew Bowman, Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, said while there are Latter-day Saint congregations around the world, they retain a distinctly American flavor and are perceived as a U.S. export. He said this is called a “world church.”
With this model, Bowman said there are limits on how much it can grow and challenges with keeping members active.
The alternative is a “global church,” a status Bowman said Roman Catholicism has achieved.
“If you attend a mass service in Rome, Italy; in Caracas, Venezuela; and, for instance, Accra, Ghana, it will look very different,” Bowman said. “There will be a kind of a deep merging of the local culture in each of these places.”
With Nelson’s appointments to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Bowman suspects church leadership is slowly pivoting to that second approach. The faith is already seeing faster growth outside of the United States than within.
With that global goal in mind, Bowman said having someone like Kearon in leadership brings a valuable “perspective, and a sense of what is working and what is not working around the world.”
President Nelson has shown his focus on globalizing in other ways, too, said Utah State University’s Patrick Mason, a professor of religious studies and history. His predecessors may have had a similar focus, but Mason thinks Nelson is “stepping on the gas pedal.”
“One of the hallmarks of President Nelson’s ministry has been building temples all over the world,” Mason said.
While some might view Kearon as “not too far from American” since he’s a British and Irish national, “he does see the world, I think, through a different lens than people who are born and raised in the United States, especially in the Intermountain West,” Mason said. “He’s a guy who’s traveled a lot and I think has soaked up those global cultures.”
On top of a more global perspective, Mason said Kearon also brings his perspective as a convert.
To members outside of the U.S., Bowman said he thinks it will “make a difference” to see non-Americans in top leadership positions.
For members within the states, Bowman suspects that having more international leaders will help them be more conscious of what is happening globally.
Within the Latter-day Saint faith, Kearon is known for his 2016 General Conference talk about helping refugees. In 2022, he gave a talk directed at victims of abuse.
“These are not necessarily the normal topics that we hear about at General Conference,” Mason said. “And so I think that the fact that he used those rare opportunities to speak at General Conference specifically to speak about the suffering that so many people encounter in this world, I think says a lot about who he is and probably what we should expect to hear from him in the future.”
