ROME — In a major capital of Christianity on Monday, all 15 apostle-leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered together for the first time outside the United States in what some called a powerful statement about the church's role as a world religion.
The moment was captured in photos of them in front of the statues of Jesus Christ and his ancient apostles in the church's visitors' center at the new Rome Italy Temple. Their senior leader, President Russell M. Nelson, called "a modern Peter" by one of the faith's apostles and regarded as a prophet by members who believe the faith to be literally Christ's restored church, tweeted the group photo and a second of him alone next to a statue of Peter holding the priesthood keys to lead Christ's church.
"The Lord stands at the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," the tweet said. "As modern-day apostles of Jesus Christ, the message we share today is the same that apostles shared long ago — that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that this is his church."
The church obtained permission to make the first replicas of the statues of the ancient apostles created by a contemporary of Joseph Smith, Rome-trained Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who also sculpted the Christus statue used here and in many other Latter-day Saint visitor centers.
"This is what the Restoration is, the Restoration of the original church Jesus Christ established, and it's built upon prophets and apostles," said Eric Huntsman, a professor of Ancient Scripture and coordinator of the Ancient New Eastern Studies Program at Brigham Young University. "To have the modern apostles stand with the statues of the ancient 12 apostles says, 'this is the church of Jesus Christ.' Today we say, 'of Latter-day Saints,' but it is the same church.
"Having all of the apostles in Rome is a powerful symbol that the Restored Church is the same church of Jesus Christ that our Lord established in the meridian of time."
President Nelson will continue the dedication ceremonies for the Rome Temple today, with the help of the rest of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
"We have the modern Peter dedicating this house of the Lord for purposes which Peter and Paul declared two millennia ago," Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve said. Elder Uchtdorf, who was sustained as an apostle in 2004, is reflective of the international nature of the church. He was born in Czechoslovakia and his family joined the church in Germany when he was a boy in 1947.
President Nelson typically is accompanied by one apostle at a temple dedication. Occasionally, the church president brings more. He rarely takes all, and never have all been together away from American soil in the faith's 188-year history.
They uniformly expressed astonishment at and appreciation for the opportunity to join President Nelson at the dedication of the Rome Temple, the church's first in a New Testament city.
"We know that two former-day apostles, Peter and Paul, were here," said Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve, "and then to have modern-day apostles here, all of us, is just a moving experience, in some ways paying homage to them and homage to the gospel that we all preach."
His colleague, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, called Rome the cradle of Christianity.
"It's really significant to have this temple in this city," he said.
He said the Christus and the statues of his twelve ancient apostles — with Paul in place of Judas Iscariot — had special meaning for him because Thorvaldsen sculpted them between 1820 and 1844, the earliest days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
All the modern-day apostles and their spouses are participating in the dedication ceremonies this week. They were together for two hours to take the photos and lunch together Monday. They were together for an additional hour for media interviews, including with the national La Stampa.
The Deseret News will update this story throughout the day.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2TJ3afA
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