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Patrick Kearon
Kearon is a warm, story-driven teacher whose ministry has centred on compassion for outsiders, from refugees in Europe to members who feel they never measure up. A business and communications professional before full-time Church service, he joined the Church as an adult convert.
Personality
Kearon teaches through personal stories and tends to lead with empathy. The Church has linked that empathy to his childhood: he was sent to boarding school in England at ten while his parents stayed in Saudi Arabia. He is open about his own flaws; at BYU Education Week in 2026 he described himself as prone to overachievement, admitted his talk felt unfinished, and urged listeners to slow down and rest rather than tie their worth to productivity. He has spoken of habits such as early-morning outdoor prayer and naps on flights home from assignments.
Under pressure
His father died when Kearon was 19, and he left formal education to go to work, first for a Member of Parliament and later for Nestlé in England, Saudi Arabia and the United States. As President of the Church's Europe Area during the 2015-16 refugee crisis, he started programmes to help refugees, urged European Commission officials to act, and argued in public that religious freedom means protecting the practice of others as well as one's own. He and his wife also lost their first child, a son, in infancy.
The arc
Born in Carlisle in 1961, Kearon grew up partly in Saudi Arabia, worked across several industries and ran his own communications consultancy. He met the Church through a Latter-day Saint family in California, was taught by missionaries in London and was baptised on Christmas Eve 1987. After serving as a stake president and Area Seventy in England he became a General Authority in 2010, President of the Europe Area in 2015, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy in 2017 and its senior president in 2020. He was ordained an apostle on 7 December 2023.
Legacy
In 2020 Kearon became the first Senior President of the Seventy born outside the United States since that presidency was reconstituted in 1975, and he later joined the Quorum of the Twelve as a British convert. His calls to welcome refugees are credited with prompting practical responses among members, including new refugee charities in Rexburg, Idaho. His 2026 Education Week address on rest and self-worth, given to more than 15,000 people, spoke directly to members who tie their worth to achievement.
Birth data confidence · Date high · Time unknown · Place high · Biography