Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)

The quorum was first organized in 1835 and designated as a body of "traveling councilors" with jurisdiction outside areas where the church was formally organized, equal in authority to the First Presidency, the Seventy, the standing Presiding High Council, and the high councils of the various stakes.

After the apostles returned from their missions to England, Joseph Smith altered the responsibilities of the quorum: it was given charge of the affairs of the church, under direction of the First Presidency.

At the time of the death of Joseph Smith, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was Brigham Young.

Shortly after this occurs, the apostles meet in a room of the Salt Lake Temple to appoint a successor.

Depending on circumstances, this may occur before or after a sustaining vote is held at a church general conference.

Some apostles receive assignments to become members of boards of church-owned for-profit corporations and trustees of the church's educational institutions.

(Some exceptions have been made to this rule, as when quorum member Ezra Taft Benson was permitted to serve as United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1953 to 1961 and when quorum member Reed Smoot was permitted to serve in the United States Senate from 1903 to 1933.)