Make Sealing-to-Spouse Ordinance Unavailable Until Both Spouses Complete Pre-Requisite Ordinances
The Family Search system allows a user to request and print a deceased person's Sealing-to-Spouse ordinance without ensuring any pre-requisite ordinances are complete (i.e. Baptism, Confirmation, Initiatory and Endowment). Allowing users to request Sealing-to-Spouse ordinances for deceased people before their pre-requisite ordinances are completed can be misleading and problematic.
It is misleading because when the Sealing-to-Spouse ordinance is listed as 'ready', it's logical for a user to presume the pre-requisite ordinances are completed for both the deceased person and their spouse. It is problematic because users can unwittingly perform the Sealing ordinance out of sequential order, going against The General Handbook's guidelines regarding sequential order for ordinances.
As of January 2023 The General Handbook states that:
(28.2) "Temple ordinances for the deceased are generally performed in the following order:
- Baptism
- Confirmation
- Melchizedek Priesthood ordination (for men)
- Initiatory
- Endowment
- Sealings"
(28.2.3) "The ordinances of baptism, confirmation, initiatory, and endowment are generally performed, either in life or by proxy, before a deceased person is sealed to a spouse or to his or her parents."
Therefore, can a feature be introduced to make the Sealing-to-Spouse ordinance unavailable until both spouses have completed their Pre-Requisite Ordinances for Sealing?
Example of a deceased person who has their Sealing-to-Spouse ordinance showing as 'ready to reserve and print':
But, when you actually view that individual's personal profile, they still need to complete all of the ordinances that are pre-requisite to their sealing:
Comments
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You are correct, the handbook says "generally." Please see this article Correct Order of Temple Ordinances from the Help Center regarding proxy ordinances.
Maile 🙂
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Thank you for your response Maile. Having read the article, I note that it says that the order of ordinances isn't necessarily an issue, as the pre-requisite ordinances do still all need to be performed (at some point) in order for the sealing to become efficacious. So, if the ruling is that ordinances can be done out of sequence in the temple, I will accept that is how it is.
However, on a practical level, if I (like others) am someone who likes to do my ordinances in sequential order for my ancestors, Family Search currently does not offer a 'warning' or 'alert' system informing me that there are ordinances for an individual which are still outstanding, before I proceed with confirming a sealing ordinance. May I suggest such an 'alert' be introduced, which informs users that other ordinances are outstanding prior to a sealing (even if I choose to proceed with the sealing ordinance, out of sequence, anyway)? I think this would help satisfy those users who are keen to perform their ancestral ordinances in sequence.
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