Shortly after the Navu Saints voted on August 8, 1844 to sustain the 12 Apostles as the new leaders of the church.

Sydney Rigdon was excommunicated,

for reasons we will discuss in this episode.

Then for more than three years, between 1844 and 1847, Brigham Young and the 12 led the church as a group of

equals. Together they oversaw the completion of the Navu temple and

organized an exodus out of the United States. Yet after leading a Vanguard company to the Salt Lake

Valley in 1847, Brigham Young became concerned about the 12 collectively leading the

church and became persuaded, for reasons we will discuss that it was time

to reorganize the first presidency but his proposal was not uncontested by the 12

and so in a spirited series of debates, with Orson Pratt leading the opposition,

Brigham Young ultimately persuaded the majority of the 12th to re-establish the first presidency,

which officially took place on the 27th of December 1847

at the Keynesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In today's episode of Church History Matters, we dig into the intriguing details of all of this.

I'm Scott Woodward and my co-host is Casey Griffiths,

and today Casey and I dive into our fourth episode in this series about succession in the presidency.

Now let's get into it. Hi Casey, welcome back.

Hi, Scott, good to be here.

Episode 4.

Episode 4.

Succession.

Yeah, and I've got to say this is delightful because normally I get to deal with this in one class period but

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