lajackson wrote:This seems to be an excellent way of making donations electronically. I would be happy to see such a system made available in the U.S.
Agreed, I would like to see this kind of thing too.
lajackson wrote:I would feel confident that, whatever the CRN is, it will still give you credit in your name for your contributions. And, in any event, you most certainly will receive all of the blessings of paying tithing that the Lord has promised.
So to me, it sounds like the CRN is not really an identifier of membership within the Church's records. It sounds like an identifier within the financial system called BPay, especially where the C stands for Customer. So with that being said, it's hard to tell what's really going on with your account. I would think that if the Church set up these accounts for Australian members, they would try to create accounts that don't go inactive as I'm sure they anticipated there would situations much like yours. But it sounds like the actual management of these financial accounts may be more in the hand of BPay than the Church.
My suggestion would be to first contact your local branch president or bishop about this. Perhaps they have access to the system in a way that they can verify that your payments are being accredited to your actual financial records in the Church's databases. Here in the US, if you pay electronically to Church Headquarters, the local ward or branch doesn't get any indication that you have paid tithing or other offerings. Hopefully with your specialized system, it is different.
If your local leaders don't have access to this information, then it might be a good idea to call the Church's Australian Area Office. I'm not exactly sure how you would find their contact information; perhaps someone else here on the forums could guide you with how to do this?
If that doesn't work either, perhaps you could call Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City? There is a toll-free number. I know this seems kind of desperate, but someone in Church leadership at the local level or here in the US must know about this system you are talking about that the Church set up and how it works.
I've thought about suggesting you contact BPay, but I can just imagine in my mind them assuring you that of course the funds were guaranteed to be delivered to the Church. In my mind, you need to verify that the Church got the funds, but more importantly that they were credited to your specific financial accounts in the Church's own databases.
Hope this is helpful. Also, I hope someone else here on the forums will be able to help fill in the blanks for contacting the Australian Area Office and perhaps also which phone number at Church Headquarters might be the right one.