Sealing Prior to One Year Following Baptism

Hello,

I am a new Stake Clerk. I had a membership clerk who is performing his annual membership audit ask me a question for which I am needing some help/guidance. There is a member of his ward that has an exception because the sealing date is one day prior to his completing one year as a member. The member was ordained an Elder on Jan. 19, 1991 and Endowed and Sealed to his wife on Jan. 18, 1991. So he was ordained an Elder one day prior to completing one year before being sealed in the temple. He said his bishop told him it was okay since it was only one day. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to correct?

You might want to look in Handbook 1: 16.1.10 under "Ordinances That Were Performed before the Appropriate Age". While it doesn't exactly fit the situation, imagine if someone had been ordained on the day before their birthday.

It seems to me all the situations in that section conclude with a do-over or sending a request for ratification to the first presidency.

Thank you for your reply and pointing me to the Handbook. I should have thought to look there first. Thank you again.

jendeano_12 wrote:. . . the sealing date is one day prior to his completing one year as a member. The member was ordained an Elder on Jan. 19, 1991 and Endowed and Sealed to his wife on Jan. 18, 1991. So he was ordained an Elder one day prior to completing one year before being sealed in the temple. He said his bishop told him it was okay since it was only one day. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to correct?

I am a little confused by your question, and there may be a typographical error in the dates, especially the year. But it appears there are three things to consider in this case.

1. A man does not need to wait one year after confirmation before he is ordained an elder.
2. A man must be ordained an elder before he may receive his endowment.
3. A member may not be endowed sooner than one year after his or her confirmation.

So the elder ordination does not appear to be a problem. The only concern would be that the member was endowed and sealed one day short of one year after confirmation.

Before you write a letter to the First Presidency requesting ratification of the ordinance, check with your temple presidency to see if it is needed. While LCR of MLS may have flagged the ordinance because of the one year requirement, the temple would not have allowed the ordinance to be perform one day early unless something gave them permission to make that one day exception.

That is why I suggest you speak with a member of the temple presidency first. There is a reason his bishop made the comment about it only being one day.

Thank you for your reply and counsel. You are correct. The issue was the ordination date, but the baptism/confirmation dates. The exception read: "A person should not be sealed to a spouse before being a member of the Church for a year." I sent an email to Church HQ MLS Support and they asked the clerk to call them because they stated that since the system was flagging it as an exception, they wanted to assist to correct it.

Thanks again!