The Mormon church's oldest-ever president has turned 100
Leaders of worldwide religions commonly stay at the helm well past retirement age, but it’s not often you find centenarians overseeing major faiths
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Leaders of worldwide religions commonly stay at the helm well past retirement age, but it’s not often you find centenarians overseeing major faiths.
That’s what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has as of Monday when church president Russell M. Nelson turned 100. He had already become the oldest president ever of the Utah-based faith three years ago and now becomes its first to hit the century mark.
“Age, wisdom and spiritual authority go together,” said Angie Hong, a program director for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School.
Pope Francis is 87. The Dalai Lama is 89. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who leads Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, is 84. Ali al-Sistani, the grand ayatollah who is the senior religious figure for the world’s 200 million Shia Muslims, is 94.
