Excommunication

If a person is excommunicated will their ward have their records or will they be with another entity? We had a person that was excommunicated and worked with the stake presidency and was rebaptised. I couldn't print out a baptismal certificate. Should I have this persons records or would the stake or headquarters maintain the records until his standing with the church is changed?

rlovely wrote:If a person is excommunicated will their ward have their records or will they be with another entity? We had a person that was excommunicated and worked with the stake presidency and was rebaptised. I couldn't print out a baptismal certificate. Should I have this persons records or would the stake or headquarters maintain the records until his standing with the church is changed?

The stake takes care of all the communication with the Office of the First Presidency (or the Church administration office in some areas) on matters of excommunication. Once the excommunication has been processed, the membership record will be removed from the ward's MLS on the next Send/Receive.

When an excommunicated member is rebaptized, the stake submits the Baptism Record for Readmission. Once that form has been processed, the record will be sent down to the ward on the next MLS Send/Receive. The stake definitely never maintains any membership records; the record will be in the ward, once the administration office has processed the action. But you do need to be patient; these processes can take a few weeks.

rlovely wrote: I couldn't print out a baptismal certificate.

Once the record is processed by the church and comes down to your ward's MLS, the baptism date on the member's record will be the member's original baptism date, not the re-baptism date. You should not need to generate a new baptism certificate.

njcant1 wrote:Once the record is processed by the church and comes down to your ward's MLS, the baptism date on the member's record will be the member's original baptism date, not the re-baptism date. You should not need to generate a new baptism certificate.

That's not quite accurate for a member who had been endowed. The baptism date will not be restored to the original date until a restoration of blessings takes place, which is at least a year after the rebaptism.

But in any case, you are right that there is no need for a new baptism certificate -- a major goal of welcoming an excommunicated person back into the Church is to restore their previous blessings and ordinances. Once that happens, the original baptismal certificate is all they need.

If a person is rebaptised and previously was a Melchizedek priesthood holder, do they go through the process of being ordained in the Aaronic Priesthood again or do they receive no priesthood and work to have their blessings restored and then receive the priesthood through that process?

melsam04 wrote:If a person is rebaptised and previously was a Melchizedek priesthood holder, do they go through the process of being ordained in the Aaronic Priesthood again or do they receive no priesthood and work to have their blessings restored and then receive the priesthood through that process?

That process is outlined in Handbook 1: 6.12.12. I'd consult with the bishop.

melsam04 wrote:If a person is rebaptised and previously was a Melchizedek priesthood holder, do they go through the process of being ordained in the Aaronic Priesthood again or do they receive no priesthood and work to have their blessings restored and then receive the priesthood through that process?

A man who has been endowed will receive the priesthood when his blessings are restored. If he was not endowed, he should be ordained an elder at the time of his baptism. Either way, he does not go through all of the offices of the Aaronic Priesthood again as he may have done originally.

If you are excommunicated and rebaptized are there certain callings that you will never be able to receive/ do like becoming a Bishop or Mission President?

hstrikwerda wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2024 8:33 pm If you are excommunicated and rebaptized are there certain callings that you will never be able to receive/ do like becoming a Bishop or Mission President?

When a brother who loses his membership is readmitted by baptism and later qualifies to have his priesthood and temple blessings restored, and he was once a bishop, his priesthood ordination as bishop is not restored (General Handbook 32.17.2). However, I am personally aware of a person in that situation who was later called and served as a bishop again, which means he must have been ordained to the priesthood office of bishop. It just did not happen at the time his priesthood and blessings were restored.

I am not aware of any reason a mission president could not serve in that calling again, although that would be completely up to the First Presidency of the Church to decide.

In the early days of the Church, at least two of the Apostles who lost their membership later became Apostles again. Others did not.

Repentance is a very individual process, but as far as I am aware, thorough and complete repentance allows a member to receive all of the blessings of the gospel again.

hstrikwerda wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2024 8:33 pm If you are excommunicated and rebaptized are there certain callings that you will never be able to receive/ do like becoming a Bishop or Mission President?

One particular scenario I'm uncertain about is regarding where an "annotation" is involved. For example, there are situations where a member's record has an annotation which prevents them from serving in certain callings (with children and youth for example), regardless of how fully they repent of those sins. GHB 32.14.5 covers the policy for this scenario, both for membership restrictions as well as membership withdrawal.

So if a membership is withdrawn (aka excommunication), 32.14.5 outlines any additional requirements for annotations (which are placed on the record the Church retains, even after membership is withdrawn). And from my reading of the policy, after rebaptism the Stake President would need to additionally recommend the removal of any annotation using the standard process. So while there's not a blanket policy of "a rebaptized member can't have calling xyz", the nature of the sins may require additional steps that the First Presidency would be involved with.

Of course, if approval for rebaptism also cleans off all annotations, then that would be good to know. I tried to determine from the Handbook (such as 32.16) if there's scenarios where annotations could potentially remain even if approval was given to readmit the person to the Church, and couldn't quite tell. Again, my thought is that certain sins may require an annotation regardless of membership status, and those annotations may persist (per First Presidency decisions) throughout that member's life regardless of repentance.

I suspect there is no blanket policy and it's done on a case by case basis. And that makes sense as there's probably details that prevent the formulation of a blanket policy.

Note that from the Chart of Callings (30.8.1), starting with the office of Bishop, approval comes from "First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve". Approval for a stake president comes from "An assigned General Authority or Area Seventy". These approvers are are likely to have access to more of the membership information (such as history) than the ward or stake. I think the Handbook is written more for the local unit than those higher levels, so it's likely to omit those kinds of details.

How come no one will help me get my blessings restored? I have spoken with a few bishops over the years and everyone seems so calm and kind but nothing ever comes from it. I don’t get told why or why not. It’s definitely making me feel like I’m never going to be worthy regardless of what I do.

Restoration of blessings is normally handled by a Stake President.

TiaraDGS wrote: Tue May 12, 2026 10:23 am How come no one will help me get my blessings restored? I have spoken with a few bishops over the years and everyone seems so calm and kind but nothing ever comes from it. I don’t get told why or why not. It’s definitely making me feel like I’m never going to be worthy regardless of what I do.

Additionally, when an "Application to the First Presidency" is made, and is not approved, from what I understand there generally is not a detailed explanation of "why or why not". So your local leaders may not be able to provide much additional insight into the "why". And that can definitely be frustrating.

I agree that speaking with your Stake President (and perhaps first with your current Bishop) and seeking their counsel, might help you feel God's love and approval of your current path regardless of the status of your membership. These leaders can help us when we struggle to understand the Lord's timing of certain things, which many of us experience during our own lifetimes.