There will be no white smoke from a chapel chimney. There will be no church convention, no lobbying and no election.

Mormons don’t do succession drama. When the head of their church dies, as Thomas S. Monson did on Tuesday, the next leader is chosen from the top ranks based strictly on seniority. The system is intended to avoid any hint of instability or intrigue, but it practically guarantees that the president will be elderly — even very elderly.

President Monson was 90, and had served as prophet and head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly 10 years. Following a tradition that dates from the church’s early years, he is to be succeeded by the longest-serving member of a church governing body known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Right now, that man is President Russell M. Nelson, a former heart surgeon, who is 93. Next in line after him is Dallin H. Oaks, a former president of Brigham Young University and state Supreme Court justice. He is 85. You have to pass four more people in the line of succession before you get to someone born after World War II.