Presiding High Council - History of The Presiding High Council in The LDS Church

History of The Presiding High Council in The LDS Church

On February 17, 1834, Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, created the church's first high council at church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio. (See LDS D&C 102). This body consisted of twelve men, under the direction of the First Presidency. This High Council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the church, except in areas where the church was not organized (which, beginning in 1835, was led by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending. When church headquarters moved to Jackson County, Missouri, the newly-formed Missouri high council took on a presiding role as the High Council of Zion, and the Kirtland high council became subordinate. Later, when other high councils were established in newly formed stakes of the Church, the High Council of Zion took on the role of "presiding" over the lesser High Councils. For example, cases tried in the High Councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to the Presiding High Council. The president of this high council was the President of the Church, who at all relevant times was Joseph Smith, Jr..

Originally, the Presiding High Council, under the direction of the First Presidency, was in a de facto supervisory role over the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which was a travelling high council with jurisdiction only outside of Zion or its stakes. For example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in the Traveling High Council, it was the Presiding High Council at Far West, Missouri that voted on and filled the vacancies. Later, as the Traveling High Council evolved and began to be known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, it acquired equal status with the Presiding High Council and both were subordinated to the First Presidency. When the High Council of Zion was dissolved after the Church was expelled from Missouri, the High Council organized at the new church headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois functioned as the Presiding High Council of the church, overseeing appeals from high councils in outlying stakes.

After the 1844 succession crisis, High Councils developed differently in the various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which believed in the ascendancy of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Presiding High Council diminished in authority and eventually disappeared. Post-exodus, the council was established in a limited capacity as part of the central Salt Lake Stake, but only served as a ratifying body for priesthood quorums in other stakes. The LDS Adult Sunday School Manual for 1980 states: “The Salt Lake Stake functioned more or less as a center stake that gave direction and guidance and had jurisdiction over other stakes. When quorum leaders in outlying areas needed new officers they sent a list of nominees to the Salt Lake Stake.” Of this arrangement, the manual states that “the function of stake organizations … had not been adequately defined for the maximum strength of the overall Church organization.”

In 1877, the First Presidency with Brigham Young as President sent out an epistle to the Church for the purpose of “setting in order the quorums of priesthood”; regarding the situation of the Salt Lake Stake having a "center place," supervisory role, the epistle states that “under the direction of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles the presidency of the various Stakes will have the general supervision of all matters pertaining to the church within the limits of their Stakes.” With that, any remaining vestiges of a standing presiding high council within the LDS Church disappeared.