Both councils, at least in theory, preside over the church, although the apostles have tended to supersede the standing high council in both of the largest Latter Day Saint denominations, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ.
Both presiding high councils function as second presidencies to the church, the apostles overseeing the mission field, and the standing high council overseeing the stakes of Zion (or areas where the church has been organized into sustained units).
The traveling presiding high council acts to govern the church outside of the organized stakes.
[6][7] Meanwhile, after the 1844 succession crisis, high councils developed differently in the various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, with its role often decreasing.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was composed of those who recognized Brigham Young and the apostles as the rightful successor to Smith, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gained ascendancy and the standing high council diminished in authority, eventually disappearing completely.
When quorum leaders in outlying areas needed new officers they sent a list of nominees to the Salt Lake Stake.”[8] 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.”[8] Toward the end of his life, Brigham Young began an extensive reformation of the various priesthood quorums, standardizing their jurisdiction and function.
[9] Minutes from an October 19, 1876 Bishops Meeting quote Young as saying, "So with the High Councils, their jurisdiction extends only to the Stakes in which they are organized.
Composed of twelve members, it retains some (but not all) of the duties detailed in Smith's original priesthood structure.
[11] The Church Administrator's Handbook 2005 states: The Standing High Council meets at the request of the First Presidency to consider questions of moral and ethical significance, to provide general advice and counsel to the First Presidency, and to consider appeals from courts of field jurisdictions.