Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503230049
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VERN ANDERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SALT LAKE CITY LENGTH: Medium
Few in the ornate lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building knew it had been fully 21 years since any man who served as the faith's "prophet, seer and revelator" had held a news conference.
But they realized what they were seeing was rare, and that a statement was being made.
For years The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been governed mostly by committee as presidents who lived to be 90, 94 and 87 became frail, worn out or enfeebled in office.
Enter Gordon B. Hinckley, ordained last Sunday as the 15th president of the fastest-growing religion founded in America, a man who for 14 years had ensured a healthy continuity in the church's three-member First Presidency.
Though 84, Hinckley made a point of standing to deliver a brief statement and then to field a couple of dozen questions. One reporter asked about his health.
"I spent one night in the hospital in my life. I was past 75 when that occurred," he replied. "That doesn't mean I'm ready to run a 100-yard dash."
By turns candid, humorous and artfully vague, Hinckley appeared every inch the man who pioneered the modern church's extensive public relations arm and its use of television and satellite technology to deliver its message.
And at the end, there was a hint of more to come.
"Thank you ever so much. Thank you," Hinckley said. "We'll see you again some time. Thank you."
His robust performance had a galvanizing effect on church employees. There were smiles everywhere, and the switchboard lit up with calls of support from rank-and-file members.
"I was delighted to see the church take this kind of step forward. I for one hope this is the first of many of these kinds of experiences," said Bruce Olsen, managing director of the church Public Affairs Department.
It is virtually impossible to overstate the reverence Mormons feel toward their "living prophet" as one chosen by God to receive divine revelation. That choosing is done by a tradition of apostolic succession in which the church's most senior apostle becomes president at the death of his predecessor.
Hinckley succeeded Howard W. Hunter, who died March 3 at age 87 after just nine months in office.
The model for all Mormon presidents is church founder Joseph Smith, who said he was visited by God and Jesus Christ and told to restore "the only true and living church on the face of the Earth."
by CNB