The Keys of Presidency:

Meaning & Samples of Usage

NOTE: This essay is NOT meant to serve any purpose other than to assist individuals wishing to begin their research on the important term "keys of presidency." This post represents my personal understanding of the issue, and is NOT a substitute for official sources.

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What is meant by “keys of presidency?” This is a term that is used with care in the LDS culture. The term refers to individuals who preside over essential priesthood responsibilities in the church. At the local level "keys of presidency" are conferred upon Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Quorum Presidents. Such keys allow a Bishop to determine and authorize when, where and by whom priesthood ordinances in his Ward can be performed. The keys are bestowed by setting apart, and are not conferred upon counselors. Keys are lost when an officer is released from his position. Although a former Bishop retains the title of “Bishop,” his keys of presidency no longer remain.

Officers in the high priesthood with "keys of presidency" should aspire to the highest moral characteristics. Those persons should show humility, love unfeigned, long-suffering, meekness, spiritual knowledge, the ability to reprove with love, and respect for differing opinions without compromising the truth. Those persons should be leaders in righteousness, prayerful, able to counter false doctrine (even to an uninformed church crowd), and should seek revelation and companionship from the Holy Ghost. Such individuals study the scriptures, seek the power of God when depressed, and routinely seek and find the peace of Christ.

Few individuals in the church are given the blessing of "keys of presidency." When it occurs, I suspect there has been foreordination. Such callings indicate that there is a work to be carried forth. Again, humility is the essential ingredient. Church leadership entails much hard work and sacrifice. Church leadership provides NOT a mandate of autocratic power, but a mantle of responsibility based in love for others more than self.

Below are representative examples of how this term has been used by authorities in the church.

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Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Shepherds of Israel,” Ensign, Nov. 2003, 60
We have more than 18,000 bishops in the Church. Every one is a man who has been called by the spirit of prophecy and revelation and set apart and ordained by the laying on of hands. Every one of them holds the keys of the presidency of his ward. Each is a high priest, the presiding high priest of his ward. Each carries tremendous responsibilities of stewardship. Each stands as a father to his people.

Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., The Way to Perfection, p.215
The bishop of a ward has the power to direct the members of his ward, for he holds the keys of presidency there, and he, acts both as bishop and as the president of the ward by virtue of his High Priesthood. Now, in his ward may live an apostle, but as a member of the ward, the apostle is under the jurisdiction of his bishop. For instance, should he desire to baptize one of his children, it would be his duty to obtain the permission of his bishop, for that is the order of the Church. The bishop holds the keys for the performance of all ordinances in his ward, but he may delegate authority for administering these to others.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, October 1937, p.114
We have a perfect order of Priesthood, because it is divine. It is not man-made. The Bishop in the ward holds the keys of presidency, and the power to direct and set in order all things within his ward. Likewise the Presidency of the stake hold the keys of presidency, and it is their duty to set in order and regulate all things pertaining to the stake over which they preside. The President of the Church holds the keys of authority for the whole Church. He is the mouthpiece of God. It is through him that revelation comes for the guidance of the members.

Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.3, p.152 [Emphasis in original].
In the days of Christ's ministry he called the first apostles who were ever ordained to that office so far as we have any knowledge. He conferred upon them all the power and authority of the priesthood. He also appointed three of these Twelve to take the keys of presidency. Peter, James, and John, acted as the First Presidency of the Church in their day.

The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.66 – 67
The Prophet Joseph taught us that father Adam was the first man on the earth to whom God gave the keys of the everlasting priesthood. He held the keys of the presidency, and was the first man who did hold them. Noah stood next to him, he being the father of all living in his day, as Adam was in his day. These two men were the first who received the priesthood in the eternal worlds, before the worlds were formed. They were the first who received the everlasting priesthood or presidency on the earth. Father Adam stands at the head, so far as this world is concerned. Of course, Jesus Christ is the Great High Priest of the salvation of the human family. But Adam holds those keys in the world today; he will hold them to the endless ages of eternity. And Noah, and every man who has ever held or will hold the keys of presidency of the kingdom of God, from that day until the scene is wound up, will have to stand before Father Adam and give an account of the keys of that priesthood, as we all will have to give an account unto the Lord, of the principles that we have received when our work is done in the flesh. -- DW 38:389, March 3, 1889.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p.174
The apostolic office in its very nature, is a proselyting office. When an apostle presides, he, like the high priest, the seventy, the elder, or the bishop, presides because of the High Priesthood which has been conferred upon him; and furthermore because he has been called upon so to do by the acknowledged head of the Church. (Doctrine and Covenants, section 107:23-33.) And so with the high priest who has been called to officiate in the First Presidency, in which case he is "accounted equal" with the President of the Church in holding the keys of the Presidency (section 90:6) as long as the President remains.

Russell M. Nelson, “Keys of the Priesthood,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, p.36
Your stake president, quorum president, and bishop hold keys of presidency. Their keys control the power of their unit of the Church. Those leaders not only may call and release, but they must train and bear sacred responsibility that the mission of the Church be accomplished.

Rex Allred, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Mar. 1983, p.67
A president is always set apart before the counselors are set apart, and he receives the keys of presidency over the quorum or the organization. Counselors do not receive keys.

Victor L. Brown, “Priesthood Activation,” Ensign, May 1982, p.34
The counselors in the bishopric have vitally important responsibilities, but they do not have the keys of presidency as the bishop does.

Dennis A. Wright, “ ‘None Were Greater’: A Restoration View of Melchizedek,” Ensign, Feb. 1998, p.30
Because Melchizedek served as the “keeper of the storehouse of God,” he held stewardship over receiving the tithes and offerings of the faithful and in overseeing their use in blessing others. Such a function is the same as that exercised by the person who holds the keys of presidency in the Lord’s contemporary Church—the President of the Church, the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the Lord. Thus, in this light, Melchizedek acted as the Lord’s presiding high priest in accepting Abraham’s tithing and in giving him a blessing.

Boyd K. Packer, “What Every Elder Should Know—and Every Sister as Well: A Primer on Principles of Priesthood Government,” Ensign, Feb. 1993, p.7
There are two ways authority is conferred in the Church: by ordination and by setting apart. Offices in the priesthood—deacon, teacher, priest, elder, high priest, patriarch, seventy, and Apostle—always come by ordination. The keys of presidency and the authority to act in callings in the priesthood are received by setting apart.

Harold B. Lee, Improvement Era, June 1970, p.28
The beginning of the call of one to be President of the Church actually begins then he is called, ordained, and set apart to become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Such a call by prophecy, or in other words, by the inspiration of the Lord to the one holding the keys of presidency, and the subsequent ordination and setting apart by the laying on of hands by that same authority, places each apostle in a priesthood quorum of twelve men holding the apostleship.

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