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Endowment date should not be earlier than the ordination of elder date

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:19 pm
by calvinhunt
The Membership Record Validation Report shows the following Problems with a record:
1. The endowment date should not be earlier than the Melchizedek Priesthood conferral date.
2. The endowment date should not be earlier than the ordination of elder date.
3. The sealing to spouse date should not be erarlier than the Melchizedek Priesthood conferral date.
The member's record shows;
Elder ordination date: 28 Feb 1979
Endowed date: 9 Feb 1979
Sealed to spouse: 9 Feb 1979
The stake clerk and I have checked our offices in hopes of finding copies of the original certificate of ordination but none that old exist. I have asked the member to try to find his certificate but he is unable. I asked membership records at church headquarters but they are unable to help. I have talked with the man who was the bishop at the time as well as the man who performed the ordination. Both remember the occurance but not the specifics. They believe it was done on a Sunday but could only guess a date.
I have called the temple and asked them to verify the date of the endowment and sealing. They told me it would take some time to check the archived records. When they called me back they told me the date shown on the member's record, 9 Feb 1979, is correct. They also told me that because of temple procedures they are curtain the brother would have been made an elder prior to the temple ordinances being performed.
I looked at a 1979 calendar. I see that 28 Jan 1979 is a Sunday. If that is the day this brother was ordained an elder instead of 28 Feb 1979, as indicated on his membership record, the problem would be solved. But, no one can say for sure. Is there another step that can be taken in this case? Any help would be appreciated.

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:38 pm
by aebrown
calvinhunt wrote:I have talked with the man who was the bishop at the time as well as the man who performed the ordination. Both remember the occurance but not the specifics. They believe it was done on a Sunday but could only guess a date.
...
I looked at a 1979 calendar. I see that 28 Jan 1979 is a Sunday. If that is the day this brother was ordained an elder instead of 28 Feb 1979, as indicated on his membership record, the problem would be solved. But, no one can say for sure. Is there another step that can be taken in this case? Any help would be appreciated.

The procedures for such situations are in Handbook 1, Section 16.1.10. One of the options there is to have two witnesses attest to the person who performed the ordinance and the year (the exact date is not required in that case). It seems that you have that information. So although you don't know the precise date, your theory of the ordination being performed on the date precisely one month earlier seems plausible, and getting the order of ordinances is the important thing. So if your bishop agrees, he could authorize the changing of the record to have the 28 Jan 1979 date. It may not be precisely correct, but it's more accurate than what is currently on his record.

The other option is to have the stake president write to the Office of the First Presidency for ratification of an out-of-sequence ordinance. It sounds like the ordinance was not performed out of sequence, but I'm sure that is another way to clear up the issue.

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:22 pm
by calvinhunt
aebrown,
Thank you for your response and the insight it provides. I will share this info with my bishop (actually print it off and go over it with him). I know it will bring this issue to a long-awaited close.