This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

First, it was a famed Mormon choir that inspires the world through song. Now, it's two top LDS leaders who guide the faithful through sermons — they're all going to Republican Donald Trump's inauguration.

On Friday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that apostles D. Todd Christofferson and Gary E. Stevenson would represent the Utah-based faith at the swearing-in of the nation's 45th president.

The move continues a long tradition — which dates back, off and on, to at least 1873 — of high-level Mormon leaders attending presidential installations of Republicans and Democrats to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power.

"A presidential inauguration is a civic ceremony that transcends the person being inaugurated," Christofferson said in a news release. "It is an act of state, not of politics. Its primary purpose is for the president-elect to take the constitutionally required oath of office, and for the people by witnessing it to bind him to that oath."

Four years ago, the late L. Tom Perry and fellow apostle Quentin L. Cook attended President Barack Obama's second inaugural. For Obama's historic first swearing-in, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of Mormonism's governing First Presidency and apostle M. Russell Ballard were on hand. Uchtdorf met with Obama several times — in the White House and Salt Lake City — during the Democrat's two terms.

In 1873, according to a list in the LDS Church release, apostle George Q. Cannon went to the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant.

Not surprisingly, Reed Smoot attended seven presidential inaugurations, the most of any top Mormon leader, the release showed. The apostle also served as a U.S. senator from Utah.

Two apostles were LDS Church presidents at the time they represented the faith at presidential inaugurations. David O. McKay attended the 1953 ceremony for Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ezra Taft Benson went to the 1989 inauguration of George H. W. Bush.

According to the release's tally, which may not be complete, no top LDS authorities officially represented the faith at the multiple inaugurations of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and '40s. Some leading Mormon authorities balked at FDR's New Deal policies.

Besides witnessing next Friday's swearing-in of Trump (and the performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), Christofferson also will go to the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral the next day, on Jan. 21.