Presiding high council

In Mormonism, the Presiding High Council (also called the High Council in Zion or the High Council of Zion) is a standing high council which presides over the other standing high councils in each stake of Zion.

Types of High Councils

In the revelations of Joseph Smith, at least three types of high councils are mentioned:
*Standing High Councils,
*a "Standing" Presiding High Council, and
*a "Traveling" Presiding High Council.

A stake high council in the LDS Church today would fall under the designation of a “standing high council” in that its jurisdiction is limited to only its own particular stake.

There is only one "Standing" Presiding High Council, located in Zion. Zion itself is not considered a stake, but is the center of the Church; building upon Isaiah’s imagery of Zion as a tent (Isaiah 54:2), Zion itself is the center pole of the tent, with the stakes of Zion providing support and balance to the center place.

The "Standing" Presiding High Council in Zion presides over all of the stakes of Zion; a revelation on this council states that “the high council in Zion form a quorum equal in authority in the affairs of the church, in all their decisions, to the councils of the Twelve at the stakes of Zion.” [LDS D&C 107:37] The Twelve, or Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, are the "Traveling" Presiding High Council. Each presiding high council, standing or traveling, are equal in authority to the First Presidency, yet historically the Twelve’s authority was limited to the mission field and stopped anywhere a stake of Zion started. Likewise, the jurisdiction of the "Standing" Presiding High Council stopped once the mission field (where no stakes were organized) started. Hence, while these two Presiding High Councils have authority over all the Church, their jurisdiction is divided—unlike the First Presidency which has undivided authority over all the Church.

In addition to these two presiding councils, each of the several standing high councils in the stakes of Zion, when combined, are deemed to be equal in authority to the First Presidency. [LDS D&C 107:36]

When the Presiding High Council is referred to, it generally has reference to the "Standing" Presiding High Council in Zion, being that the "Traveling" Presiding High Council is more commonly known as the Quroum of the Twelve Apostles.

History of the Presiding High Council

On February 17, 1834, Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, created the church's first high council at church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio. ("See" LDS D&C 102). This body consisted of twelve men, under the direction of the First Presidency. This High Council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the church, except in areas where the church was not organized (which, beginning in 1835, was led by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending. When church headquarters moved to Jackson County, Missouri, the newly-formed Missouri high council took on a presiding role as the High Council of Zion, and the Kirtland high council became subordinate. Later, when other high councils were established in newly formed stakes of the Church, the High Council of Zion took on the role of "presiding" over the lesser High Councils. For example, cases tried in the High Councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to the Presiding High Council. The president of this high council was the President of the Church, who at all relevant times was Joseph Smith, Jr.. [LDS D&C 102:9]

Most Latter Day Saint historians view the High Council of Zion as distinct from a stake high council, as there is no "stake" at the "center place" of Zion, and Zion, and its branch of the Church (sometimes referred to as The Church of the Firstborn or the Church of Enoch) would preside over other branches of the Church.

Originally, the Presiding High Council, under the direction of the First Presidency, was in a de facto supervisory role over the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which was a travelling high council with jurisdiction only outside of Zion or its stakes. For example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in the Traveling High Council, it was the Presiding High Council at Far West, Missouri that voted on and filled the vacancies. Later, as the Traveling High Council evolved and began to be known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, it acquired equal status with the Presiding High Council and both were subordinated to the First Presidency. When the High Council of Zion was dissolved after the Church was expelled from Missouri, the High Council organized at the new church headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois functioned as the Presiding High Council of the church, overseeing appeals from high councils in outlying stakes.

After the 1844 succession crisis, High Councils developed differently in the various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which believed in the ascendancy of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Presiding High Council diminished in authority and eventually disappeared. Post-exodus, the council was established in a limited capacity as part of the central Salt Lake Stake, but only served as a ratifying body for priesthood quorums in other stakes. The LDS Adult Sunday School Manual for 1980 states: “The Salt Lake Stake functioned more or less as a center stake that gave direction and guidance and had jurisdiction over other stakes. When quorum leaders in outlying areas needed new officers they sent a list of nominees to the Salt Lake Stake.” ["My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth", LDS Church Sunday School Manual (1980): 40.] 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.” ["My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth", 40.]

In 1877, the First Presidency with Brigham Young as President sent out an epistle to the Church for the purpose of “setting in order the quorums of priesthood”; regarding the situation of the Salt Lake Stake having a "center place," supervisory role, the epistle states that “under the direction of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles the presidency of the various Stakes will have the general supervision of all matters pertaining to the church within the limits of their Stakes.” ["My Kingdom Shall Roll Forth", 41.] With that, any remaining vestiges of a standing presiding high council within the LDS Church disappeared.

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