letter(s) from former spouse as part of sealing cancellation process

Hi,
I am a Bishop working through the 1st Presidency application process for a couple in my ward who have both been married/sealed previously, divorced and are now married (to each other). They now desire to be sealed together.

Via church HQs I was able to make contact with the Bishop of the ex-husband of my ward sister who desires a sealing cancellation. This Bishop is helping with the contact required with the ex-husband.

For the husband (desiring to be sealed to new wife...they've been married for several years already), he will require a sealing clearance, which also involves application to the 1st Presidency.

Questions:
1) In the "leader letter to former spouse" section, the text/instructions indicate: "The application process requires that you obtain a letter from each of the following former spouses. For legal reasons, we cannot display the names and contact information for these prior spouses. Please work with the applicant to obtain this information."
- What is this letter from me supposed to contain and what am I seeking from the former spouse? Is there a template? Timeline for delivery and response?
Is this more of a notice letter? Or, am I to seek permission from the former spouse? If the later, what happens if the former spouse does not agree or fails to respond?
2) What supporting documentation are we able to or should upload as part of this application? Police reports? Divorce documents? Letter sent to former spouse? Her response?

Appreciate guidance on how to complete the admin portions of this application. Thank you

colbyj wrote:What is this letter from me supposed to contain and what am I seeking from the former spouse?
. . . what happens if the former spouse does not agree or fails to respond?

There should be instructions within the application to guide you toward all of these answers. When I last went through this process, your letter to a former spouse lets them know about the request and asks that they write a letter to the First Presidency providing their feelings about the request. You forward the response letter with the application to your stake president regardless of what it says. If you do not receive a response, you provide your letter outlining your attempts to notify the prior spouse and indicating that you have not received a response.

As I said, there should be instructions, and they may well have changed since I was last involved in the process. Your stake president will be able to help you with any additional questions you may have concerning the Application.

Thank you... I would not have posted these questions if there were instructions. Or, at least ones I could find. Yes, I know my stake president will help...but I'm trying to figure out as much on my own first before going to him for every little thing. He has enough on his plate besides trying to help me sort out these questions.

Did you ever find the template for the for the letter to the former spouse? I’m in this process and I also cannot find it.

I am working with a member through this process. I have also been unable to locate the form / template requesting input from the previous spouse. Did you ever get this resolved?

sorry, we did not end up pursuing, so this fell off my radar. So, no, I did not get a template.

I am looking for the form template also.....
It says in the instructions:
Request a letter from the former sealed spouse by certified mail. A letter template will be provided later in this application process that the bishop will use to ask the former spouse to provide a letter

But there isn't a template anywhere that I can see.
Help. (I am the Bishop)

I am also a bishop working through this exact process and also cannot find the referred to template. Wonder if one of the recent adjustments left a loose end?

I am in the same boat Bishops. Please share here if you find a template.

What I would like is to know if anyone had success with the standard response of "ask your presiding leader". I've seen many variations on this issue discussed in different threads, and haven't ever seen any success with a Stake President having the required info if a Bishop didn't have it.

My son was on the receiving end of one of these letters from the ex-wife's Bishop, and I don't blame the Bishop, but to me it seemed obvious that he didn't have any good template to follow, hence his letter was extremely curt and perfunctory. It's always difficult to place oneself in the position of somebody receiving an unexpected letter from an unknown Bishop requesting a response for a sealing cancellation, and having a template with helpful guidance seems important to avoid causing unintentional hurt to the former sealed spouse. I don't envy this responsibility that Bishops have, even when trying to follow the spirit it's a tender issue.

The template (at least for the cancellation request I made for a sister in my ward) is found in the steps you have to go through in the online application (see "Steps to Complete Action"). To start the application you go to Leader and Clerk Resources
>Membership
>>Confidential
>>>Application to First Presidency
When you get to supporting documentation step you can either enter the email of the person you're trying to reach or print it so that it can be mailed.

I've NOT done a clearance request for a brother using this system, but I doubt it's different.

how do I get the form to have a former spouse cancelling his former temple sealing/divorce

Answer on where to find template letter:
Once you have logged into LCR, click on “membership”, under “confidential” click on “applications to the first presidency”, find the member requesting the sealing cancellation, in the “leader letter to former spouse” section, you have to mark the box that indicates you do have the address of that person and enter it into the form. Thereafter, you will find an option to “preview and print the letter.” A very helpful template is created with an option to add your own comments to this letter. I hope this helps.

@piercee YES. This is what everyone is looking for! At least me. I've sat on this for way too long because I didn't know how to write this letter. As soon as I clicked the box that I knew the address, everything made sense with a form letter pre-written to be sent from me and the ability to write my own comments. I wish they made the instructions for this part easier. Your comment finally got me past the hurdle I needed.

Knowing that this exists, I can now submit feedback and specifically ask for this to be better documented. I'd think at the main "Application to the First Presidency" page, it would be very helpful for the Bishop to have some help links for the various options that are accessed there. What it seems like now, is that only after clicking through and entering info at each step, can you find out what you need (or is available) at a subsequent step. That's the feedback I'll submit.

My question is, if the woman already cancelled the sealing and the man is looking to get resealed several years later, does he need to also get a letter from the woman even though he sent her one at the time of cancellation? Also, if the sealing is already cancelled, why does the man need clearance if he already agreed to cancel it at her request?

Time sensitive, please respond asap. Thanks!

Cheryllyn.pyle wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:50 pm My question is, if the woman already cancelled the sealing and the man is looking to get resealed several years later, does he need to also get a letter from the woman even though he sent her one at the time of cancellation? Also, if the sealing is already cancelled, why does the man need clearance if he already agreed to cancel it at her request?

Time sensitive, please respond asap. Thanks!

This is a user-to-user discussion forum. Nobody here is here on official business. For timely, official answers, please talk with your bishop, stake president, and/or temple personnel.

Cheryllyn.pyle wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:50 pm My question is, if the woman already cancelled the sealing and the man is looking to get resealed several years later, does he need to also get a letter from the woman even though he sent her one at the time of cancellation? Also, if the sealing is already cancelled, why does the man need clearance if he already agreed to cancel it at her request?

If I understand your situation correctly, there are two different applications being discussed here. It sounds as if the sister requested a cancellation of her sealing. The former spouse (her husband) would have been asked to write a letter for that application.

Now it sounds as if the former spouse (the brother) is requesting a sealing clearance so he can be sealed again. This clearance request would require a letter from the former spouse (the sister) as part of that process.

He is not asking to have the original sealing cancelled again. He is requesting permission for himself to be sealed again. Those are two different things and require two different applications.

As rmrichesjr said, your best source of information about all of this will be your bishop or stake president. However, the process in each of these cases also is explained in the General Handbook (38.4.1.4) which is available for all to read.

My ex-husband was just sealed to his new wife and I was NOT given the chance to write a letter. Is this policy really followed?

snookems25 wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:56 am My ex-husband was just sealed to his new wife and I was NOT given the chance to write a letter. Is this policy really followed?

Your question and concerns should be discussed with your bishop. The nature of your question falls outside the charter of the forum and is best answered by your local priesthood leaders. The forum is for using technology in the church as well as support for certain callings.

piercee wrote:
> Answer on where to find template letter:
> Once you have logged into LCR, click on “membership”, under “confidential”
> click on “applications to the first presidency”, find the member requesting
> the sealing cancellation, in the “leader letter to former spouse” section,
> you have to mark the box that indicates you do have the address of that
> person and enter it into the form. Thereafter, you will find an option to
> “preview and print the letter.” A very helpful template is created with an
> option to add your own comments to this letter. I hope this helps.


As far as I can tell, the options mentioned above are no longer available. Does anyone know how to get the letter template now?

I'll once again suggest that all Bishops finding this thread, make sure they also communicate this to their Stake President. As this is a relatively rare and yet extremely sensitive situation, it's very challenging for Bishops who likely only have to do this maybe once during their calling. I personally feel that Stake Presidents should make sure they are aware of the details of this process, and can give specific guidance to their Bishops on how to proceed for these different scenarios. Or at least, be aware of where they can point Bishops to access any online instructions. And the more Stake Presidents hear this from their Bishops, the more hopeful I am that Stake Presidents might become better resources for Bishops in these situations.

As far as I can tell, the options mentioned above are no longer available. Does anyone know how to get the letter template now?

Anyways, to your question, from what I can tell there's no way for a Bishop to access any type of documentation for any of the "Application to the First Presidency" options, unless there is an actual application in-process. So the only hope for confirmation of current options, would be for a Bishop who has an application in-process, to provide details on what he can see. A couple years ago I submitted feedback that there should be links for Bishops to access on-line docs of some sort, so they could know beforehand what the upcoming steps would be for an application, and perhaps access things like the template we've discussed. But I do not believe that has been made available.

We have been waiting for 13 years. We tried once in the beginning but his spouse refused to give the consent letter. Now after 13 yrs we want to be sealed together along with our 3 daughters we approached her again and even now she refuses to give her consent letter. What should we do?

Talk to your bishop. Policies change over time. General Handbook 38.4.1.4 doesn't require anything from the prior spouse.

Going from memory, I don't know as "permission" from the former spouse was ever required, but only their input. The current policy requires verification that the divorce is final and "is current in all legal requirements for child and spousal support related to the divorce."

russellhltn wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 11:49 am I don't know as "permission" from the former spouse was ever required, but only their input.

Not even their input is required. The bishop has instructions on what to do if a former spouse refuses to provide a letter.