Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Urges BYU to Embrace Its Uniqueness, Stay True to the Savior

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke Monday to staff at Brigham Young University (BYU) during the first day of the institution’s 2021 University Conference.

The former BYU student (in the 1960s) and president (1980–1989) expressed his deep love for the university, noted the blessings of a school focused on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and praised faculty for their many accomplishments. He also emphasized their opportunity and duty to be true to those teachings, as given by living prophets and apostles.

Quoting former Church president Spencer W. Kimball, Elder Holland said BYU can become an “educational Mt. Everest”—but only, the Apostle added, “to the degree it embraces its uniqueness, its singularity. … [W]e must have the will to stand alone, if necessary, being a university second to none in its role primarily as an undergraduate teaching institution that is unequivocally true to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the process. … Until ‘we all come [to] the unity of the faith, and . . . [have grown to] the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’ [Ephesians 4:13], our next best achievement will be to stay in harmony with the Lord’s anointed, those whom He has designated to declare Church doctrine and to guide Brigham Young University as its trustees.”