Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Head of Mormon church sums up his life

|
|
 
  
Published: April 3, 2006 at 10:30 PM

SALT LAKE CITY, April 3 (UPI) -- Gordon Hinckley, the 95-year-old president of the Mormon Church, gave what could be heard as a valedictory message at a general conference in Salt Lake City.

Hinckley, departing from the usual practice of reflecting on the Gospel, instead looked back on his own life. He talked of his recent health problems and of how lonely he has been since the death of his wife, Marjorie, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

"The life of a president of the church is not his own," Hinckley said. "He has very little privacy and no secrets."

Hinckley has been one of the top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints for almost five decades. While he said no one should write his obituary yet, he also began his speech by recognizing that he is in the sunset period of life.

When he was 11, a Mormon patriarch told Hinckley his voice would be heard "by all nations." He said he thought the prophesy was fulfilled after he served as a missionary in Europe and Washington.

Topics: Jesus Christ, Mormon church
© 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...
Photoshop this woman at the wheel
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...
★☆☆☆☆ Michigan is an uninhabitable swamp. Do not settle
As part of the Queen's jubilee celebrations, Top Gear presenter James May has built a contraption...