SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, August 8, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) In a rare disciplinary action, a General Authority has been excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“This morning, James J. Hamula was released as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following church disciplinary action by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” said Eric Hawkins, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In keeping with established policy, the church did not reveal the reason for Hamla’s excommunication, but did confirm it was not because he became disillusioned or renounced his belief if the faith.
Hamula, who was called as a General Authority and member of the Seventy nine years ago, was executive director of the church’s Correlation Department, and previously had served as Pacific Area president for the church. Hamula, 59, also was assistant executive director of the Church History Department from 2014 to 2016.
Hamula is the first LDS General Authority excommunicated in nearly 28 years. The last was George P. Lee, ousted for what the church called “apostasy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church.” Before his death in 2010, Lee admitted to attempted child abuse.
Before Lee’s, the previous excommunication at that level had been 46 years earlier.
Hamula also had served as a mission president, a stake president, a bishop, and a missionary in Munich, Germany.
