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| Peter F. Meurs | |
|---|---|
| General Authority Seventy | |
| 2 April 2016 | |
| Called by | Thomas S. Monson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Fletcher Meurs 21 December 1956 Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia |
Peter Fletcher Meurs (born 21 December 1956) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since April 2016. Before becoming a general authority, he was a mining executive in Australia.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a general authority is a member of the highest levels of leadership in the church who has administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church. A general authority's jurisdiction is church-wide, in contrast to the responsibilities of a local authority or an area authority, which relate to a particular area, unit, or department of the church. As a group, the general authorities are often referred to as "the Brethren". As of October 2017, there are 109 general authorities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16 million members and 67,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members reported by the church, as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east. The population of 25 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Meurs was born in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. Shortly after beginning university studies, he deferred for two years to serve as a full-time missionary of the church. He married Maxine Evelyn Thatcher in the New Zealand Temple in 1979 and they are the parents of four children.
The Hamilton New Zealand Temple is the 13th constructed and 11th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located just outside the city of Hamilton, New Zealand in the suburb of Temple View, it was built with a modern single-spire design very similar to the Bern Switzerland Temple.
Meurs holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Monash University. He has worked with Esso Australia, WorleyParsons, and most recently with Fortescue Metals Group. Prior to his call as a general authority, Meurs served in a variety of positions in the LDS Church including bishop, stake presidency counselor, stake president in Perth, mission presidency counselor, and area seventy.
A bachelor's degree or baccalaureate is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to seven years. In some institutions and educational systems, some bachelor's degrees can only be taken as graduate or postgraduate degrees after a first degree has been completed. In countries with qualifications frameworks, bachelor's degrees are normally one of the major levels in the framework, although some qualifications titled bachelor's degrees may be at other levels and some qualifications with non-bachelor's titles may be classified as bachelor's degrees.
Mechanical engineering is the discipline that applies engineering, physics, engineering mathematics, and materials science principles to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering disciplines.
Monash University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1958, it is the second oldest university in the State of Victoria. The university has a number of campuses, four of which are in Victoria, and one in Malaysia. Monash also has a research and teaching centre in Prato, Italy, a graduate research school in Mumbai, India and a graduate school in Suzhou, China. Monash University courses are also delivered at other locations, including South Africa.
Meurs has also served as patron of the Australian Family Association. [1]
The Australian Family Association (AFA) is a conservative political organisation with the stated aim of "supporting and strengthening traditional family values". It was founded in 1980 by the National Civic Council's then president, B. A. Santamaria, to "promote the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society".
At the LDS Church's April 2016 general conference, Meurs was called as a general authority seventy. In 2018, he became the first counselor in the church's Asia Area Presidency. [2]
General Conference is a gathering of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held biannually every April and October at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. During each conference, members of the church gather in a series of two-hour sessions to listen to sermons from church leaders. It consists of four general sessions. Since April 2018 the priesthood session is only held during the April conference, and a General Women's Session held during October's conference.
An area is an administrative unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which typically is composed of multiple stakes and missions. These areas are the primary church administrative unit between individual stakes and the church as a whole.
