SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 8, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A British and Irish national is the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‘ Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Elder Patrick Kearon, 62, was called and ordained to the leadership role Thursday by President Russell M. Nelson, church officials said.
Kearon fills the vacancy created when President M. Russell Ballard died Nov. 12. He has been a General Authority Seventy since April 2010 and has served as the senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy since August 2020.
“This sacred call is so very daunting and humbling to me,” Kearon said in a news release. “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 of his love and light. The abundance and grace of Jesus Christ have brought immense joy into my life, as well as healing balm in times of trial. I love him. I will strive to serve him to the best of my ability.”
Kearon was raised in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, where his father worked in the defense industry, according to the news release. At age 10, he attended boarding school in England while his parents remained in Saudi Arabia.
Kearon has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States in several industries, including running his own communication consultancy.
He first learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while living with a Latter-day Saint family in California. He later encountered church missionaries in London and was baptized on Christmas Eve in 1987.
Two years after his baptism, Kearon met Jennifer Hulme, a student at Brigham Young University in Provo who was visiting London on a six-month study abroad. The couple married in 1991 and lived together in England for 19 years before relocating to Utah when Kearon became a General Authority Seventy.
The Kearons have four children: Sean (who died in infancy), Elizabeth, Susannah and Emma.
