Child Blessing Performed Elsewhere

We have a young couple in our ward who live in another area for part of each year (4-6 months). We've encouraged them to move their records to their new ward each time, but they don't want to, and won't give us the information needed. While they were in the other area, their baby was born and they they had her blessed in the other ward. They now want me to record the blessing, add the baby to our ward membership list, and print a blessing certificate. How do I do this? And can our Bishop sign the blessing certificate, even though it wasn't performed in our ward area?

cloydmcallister wrote:We have a young couple in our ward who live in another area for part of each year (4-6 months). We've encouraged them to move their records to their new ward each time, but they don't want to, and won't give us the information needed. While they were in the other area, their baby was born and they they had her blessed in the other ward. They now want me to record the blessing, add the baby to our ward membership list, and print a blessing certificate. How do I do this? And can our Bishop sign the blessing certificate, even though it wasn't performed in our ward area?

You can (and should) add a membership record for the child using either the Membership > Ordinances > Record Child Blessing or Membership > Ordinances > New Child of Record options. The first will will also prompt you to print the blessing certificate. The latter will just create the record.

As for whether your bishop can sign the certificate, I don't know of any policy that says for certain. Handbook 2 20.2.3 talks about 'the clerk' and 'the bishop' and section 20.2.1 says that blessings are 'normally' done in the ward where the parents records reside. But other than that there isn't guidance for this situation. So it's up to your bishop (possibly in consultation with your stake president) to decide whether you can print the blessing certificate and whether he can sign it. However, a blessing isn't a saving ordinance and no permanent record of the blessing is kept on church records so there may be flexibility. Again that's up to your bishop to decide how to interpret the policy.

I agree, you should add the child's membership information, but personally, I'd say that the certificate is the responsibility of the ward it was performed in.

cloydmcallister wrote:While they were in the other area, their baby was born and they they had her blessed in the other ward. They now want me to record the blessing, add the baby to our ward membership list, and print a blessing certificate.

The advice so far is reasonable, given the situation, but I would note that the other ward dropped the ball. They had a responsibility to create the membership record, specifying the ward where the family's records reside, print the blessing certificate, and have that bishop sign it. If they had done what they were supposed to, you wouldn't have had to do anything except note that the new membership record had arrived for that family's child.

I don't know how much time has passed, but you might want to check with the ward clerk of that ward and see if he is working on following this procedure. If he is doing that, you won't have to worry about it at all.

aebrown wrote:The advice so far is reasonable, given the situation, but I would note that the other ward dropped the ball. They had a responsibility to create the membership record, specifying the ward where the family's records reside, print the blessing certificate, and have that bishop sign it. If they had done what they were supposed to, you wouldn't have had to do anything except note that the new membership record had arrived for that family's child.

There was an issue with MLS 3.6.2 where these records weren't being sent out correctly. If they were still in the database, they were sent when upgrading to 3.7.0. If the clerk had manually deleted them from the out-of-unit member list before then, they would not have been sent.

We suspect that the young couple did the blessing at home and didn't notify the ward they resided in because they didn't attend church at that ward. They attended church at another ward that better fit their time schedule. So the whole thing is a mess! Thanks for your advice. I have now created a membership record for the baby and have advised the young couple to contact the correct ward for the blessing certificate, in accordance with my Bishop's direction.

You should also make sure the record get moved in accordance with the handbook each time they move. They need to understand that there is no option that they have to be move according to instructions from the brethren.

Gary_Miller wrote:You should also make sure the record get moved in accordance with the handbook each time they move. They need to understand that there is no option that they have to be move according to instructions from the brethren.

Also, as a clerk you probably won't have much influence in encouraging them to have their records where they are living; having the bishop talk to them is your best bet. Of course, depending on their situation, the bishop should decide how to best encourage them, as you would never want to do something that would drive them away from attending church at all.

sbradshaw wrote:Also, as a clerk you probably won't have much influence in encouraging them to have their records where they are living; having the bishop talk to them is your best bet.

As a clerk you may not have influence on where they attend. However, you have lots of influence and responsibility to ensure their records are in the proper ward if you follow the Handbook.

The Bishop may want to speak to them about where they should be attending and encourage them to attend their proper ward. However, the Handbook of instructions are very clear on which ward the record should be kept in and the procedures that must be used to do other wise.