SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Elder Patrick Kearon to serve as the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Church announced on Friday, Dec. 8.

Kearon, 62, fills a vacancy on the Quorum created after the death of President M. Russell Ballard, who passed away in November at the age of 95. Kearon will be sustained during the April 2024 general conference.

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As an Apostle for the Quorum of the Twelve, Kearon will have “significant administrative responsibilities” in overseeing the operation and development of the Church. The Quorum of the Twelve is the second-highest presiding body in the government of the Church. They serve under the direction of the First Presidency, which includes the Church President and two counselors.

“This sacred call is so very daunting and humbling to me,” Kearon said in a statement. “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 to His love and light.”

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The Church said Kearon has served as the senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy since August 2020 and has been a General Authority Seventy since April 2010. Kearon was raised in the United Kingdom and the Middle East. During his adult life, he worked and lived in the U.K., Saudi Arabia and the United States in a range of industries, including a communication consultancy, according to the Church.

“Elder Kearon first came to an understanding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he lived in California with a Latter-day Saint family,” the Church said in a press release. “He said they ‘lived a joyful existence founded on service.’ A few years later he met missionaries on the street in London and was eventually baptized on Christmas Eve 1987.”

Kearon met his wife, Jennifer, in London while she was on a six-month BYU study abroad. They married in the Oakland, California Temple in 1991 and have four children.

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