Hinckley funeral airs live Saturday
Hawaii Mormons will gather at stake centers throughout the state Saturday to watch a live satellite broadcast of the funeral of the late head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The funeral of President Gordon Hinckley will begin at 8 a.m. Hawaii time. The service will be held at the church conference center in Salt Lake City.
Many of Hawaii's 68,000 Mormons had met Hinckley and his apparent successor, Thomas S. Monson, both of whom have visited the islands several times.
Hinckley, 97, died Sunday at his home in Salt Lake City of complications connected with his age, according to a church announcement. He was president for nearly 13 years and oversaw a period of international expansion in the church, which numbers more than 12 million.
On his last Hawaii visit in December 2004, Hinckley spoke at the Brigham Young University-Hawaii commencement and participated in the dedication of a $5.5 million beautification project on Hale Laa Boulevard.
Monson, 80, is expected to be named president after the funeral.
He has also been in Hawaii several times on church business, according to local church spokesman Jack Hoag. Monson spoke at an October 2005 devotional service at the BYUH campus. He has attended meetings of Hawaii Reserves Inc., the land management arm of the church, including recent planning meetings about development of 660 acres of Malaekahana land purchased from the then-Campbell Estate.
The presidency traditionally goes to the man with the longest tenure on the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one of the two top directorates of the church.
Monson has been on that powerful body since 1963. He has also been on the church's governing body, the First Presidency, since 1985. He was Hinckley's first counselor and served as second counselor to the two previous presidents.