Elder Patrick Kearon, 62, has been called as an LDS Apostle to fill the vacancy on the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Being set apart on Dec. 7 by LDS Church President Russel M. Nelson, Kearon has become the newest member of the senior church leadership. His calling comes after the death of M. Russell Ballard, who died of natural causes in November.
“This sacred call is so very daunting and humbling to me,” Kearin said in a statement on the churches website. “I will need to place all my trust in the Savior as I seek to become what He needs me to be and share my witness of his love and light … I will serve Him to the best of my ability.”
Being born in Carlisle, Cimberland, England, Kearon adds to the growing list of LDS apostles who weren’t born in the United States. Kearon is also a convert to the LDS Church, discovering the faith while he worked in California, and later was visited by missionaries in London. He would later be baptized on Christmas Eve in 1987.
“I’ve had every conceivable emotion, and I know this is far beyond me.” Kearon said in a video posted to social media. “But I will plead for help. I do absolutely believe in a loving father in heaven, and in His Son, our savior. And I know that they will help, and I am counting on it.”
“I will do my best to become, over time, something along the lines of an apostle that you might have in your imagination,” Kearon continued. He would later go on to share a message of solidarity with members, saying that if they ever feel stretched that he was right there with them.
Kearon was first called to serve as General Authority Seventy in 2010 by then President Thomas S. Monson. He would later be called to serve as the Senior President of the Presidency of the Seventy in 2017, which is where he was serving at the time of his calling into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
According to Church tradition, Elder Patrick Kearon will be read in during the LDS Church’s semi-annual General Conference in April of 2024, where members will vote to sustain him as a member of the Quorum.
