Sacred Texts: Mormons

Doctrine and Convenants: 102. Minutes of the organization of the first high council of the Church, Kirtland, Ohio, February 17, 1834.

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This is Section 102 of the *Doctrine and Covenants*, a canonical scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recording the founding minutes of the church's first High Council in 1834. The text belongs to the genre of ecclesiastical law and organizational minutes, presented as divinely revealed governance procedure. Its primary content is the formal establishment of a twelve-member standing council of high priests, including the appointment of specific named individuals, voting procedures, quorum requirements, and rules for filling vacancies. The section lays out a detailed judicial process for adjudicating church disputes: the number of councilors assigned to speak scales with a case's difficulty, even-numbered councilors are structurally assigned to defend the accused, and both parties retain the right to address the council. A distinctive feature is the explicit balance of power built into the proceedings — particularly the provision that the accused is always entitled to half the council's advocacy, and that decisions can be reconsidered if any councilor identifies an error. The text also establishes a tiered appellate hierarchy, distinguishing local high councils (whose decisions can be appealed) from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (whose decisions are final except in cases of transgression reviewed by general church authorities).

Doctrine and Convenants: 102. Minutes of the organization of the first high council of the Church, Kirtland, Ohio, February 17, 1834.

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