https://www.ksl.com/?sid=45338970&nid=1 ... s-j-hamula
SALT LAKE CITY — The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church on Tuesday excommunicated a member of the Quorum of the Seventy who had been serving as the executive director of the church’s Correlation Department.
"This morning, James J. Hamula was released as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following church disciplinary action by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles," said Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Hamula had been a general authority and member of the Seventy for nine years, since his call in April 2008. He previously had served as the church’s Pacific Area president and was the assistant executive director of the Church History Department from 2014 to 2016.
Hamula is the first LDS general authority excommunicated since George P. Lee 28 years ago. Lee was excommunicated Sept. 1, 1989, for what church leaders said was "apostasy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church" following an hourlong meeting with President Ezra Taft Benson and his counselors, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Lee's excommunication had been the first in 46 years.
Such action with a church leader is extremely rare, then, but when necessary, a disciplinary council for a senior LDS leader is comprised of members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. Church leaders have said they hold the faith's most senior leaders to the same standards of conduct as all other members, if not more so.
The church confirmed that this action was not taken because of disillusionment or apostasy.
"All church discipline is carried out in complete confidence," according to an article on the church's official Mormon Newsroom website. "Church leaders have a solemn responsibility to keep confidential all information they receive in confessions and interviews. To protect that confidence, the church will not discuss the proceedings of a disciplinary council."
"In rare cases," the article noted, "the decision of a disciplinary council may be shared publicly to prevent others from being harmed through misinformation."
Elder M. Russell Ballard, a senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve, has described the three purposes of church councils.
"Members sometimes ask why church disciplinary councils are held," he said in a 1990 article in the Ensign, the church's official magazine. "The purpose is threefold: to save the soul of the transgressor, to protect the innocent, and to safeguard the Church’s purity, integrity, and good name."
He added that church disciplinary action is not intended to be the end of the process but the beginning of an opportunity to return to full fellowship and to the full blessings of the church.
"The desired result is that the person will make whatever changes are necessary to return fully and completely to be able to receive the marvelous blessings of the church," he said.
This story will be updated.
He was the executive director of the correlation department.
