Church Leadership
Joseph F. Smith called Richards to be an apostle at the age of 37. Richards became a member of the Superintendency of the Deseret Sunday School Union under David O. McKay in 1918. In April 1919 McKay was appointed Church Commissioner of Education and chose Richards as his first counselor. Richards would remain a counselor in the Deseret Sunday School Union Superintendency until 1934 when apostles were released from these positions and men were called who could devote their full time to the Sunday School, also freeing up the apostles to focus more on their specific calling.
When McKay became LDS Church president, he selected Richards as his first counselor. Richards served in that position from April 9, 1951 until his death. Richards followed his grandfather, Willard by first serving as an Apostle and then in the First Presidency.
The Christus statue that is at the visitors center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City was purchased by Richards as a gift to David O. McKay.
Richards was a mentor to Gordon B. Hinckley as he was in charge of the Radio, Publicity and Missionary Literature Committee when Hinckley served as its executive secretary.
Read more about this topic: Stephen L. Richards
Famous quotes containing the words church and/or leadership:
“The Anglican Church is marked by the grace and good sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The gospel it preaches is, “By taste are ye saved.” ... It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly well bred and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social arts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A woman who occupies the same realm of thought with man, who can explore with him the depths of science, comprehend the steps of progress through the long past and prophesy those of the momentous future, must ever be surprised and aggravated with his assumptions of leadership and superiority, a superiority she never concedes, an authority she utterly repudiates.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)