SALT LAKE CITY – The Mormon church could name as many as three new high-ranking leaders at a Utah conference this weekend, and scholars predict that for the first time ever, at least one could be from outside North America and Europe.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs the new leaders to fill vacancies on the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body that sets church policy and runs the faith’s business operations. Only one of its members is from outside the U.S.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings during a 2014 Mormon conference in Salt Lake City. At this weekend’s gathering, up to three Mormon leaders could be named to fill governing body vacancies. The Associated Press

Speculation about someone being named from a new region is ratcheting up anticipation among Latter-day Saints for what already is a rare occurrence: three board openings at once.

It’s been six years since a new quorum member was chosen, and more than a decade since the leadership council had two openings. The last time there were three was in 1906.

Quorum members serve until they die, and three recent deaths created the unprecedented void.

The new names are expected to be announced Saturday during a twice-yearly church conference in Salt Lake City. Nearly 100,000 people are expected to attend sessions over two days, and millions more will watch live broadcasts of the speeches.

“There’s going to be Mormons everywhere glued to their television sets or computer screens,” said Scott Gordon, president of FairMormon, a volunteer organization that supports the church.

Church President Thomas S. Monson, considered the religion’s prophet, chooses quorum members through divine inspiration, according to church beliefs.

Modeled after Jesus Christ’s apostles, the group serves under the church president and his two counselors. New members start as junior members, but they could someday become church president because the group’s longest-tenured member ascends to president when the current one dies.

Monson may tap somebody from Latin America or Africa as an acknowledgement that more than half of the faith’s 15 million reported members now live outside the United States, church scholars said.

That move would create a strong, visible symbol of the church’s global aspirations and give Mormons from other regions a quorum member to call their own, said Armand Mauss, retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University.

If somebody from Latin America is named, which Mauss said is a probability, that would “give each member from the southern hemisphere of the world a specific ‘model’ to identify with and aspire to in his or her own religious commitments.”

The one member of the current board from outside the United States is Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Germany. A total of 14 members of the quorum and first presidency have been born outside the U.S. since the church was founded in 1830, according to church officials.

Two people who seem to be likely candidates from Latin America are Ulisses Soares and Cláudio R. M. Costa, both from Brazil.

Related Stories