Policies and Programs

The policies and programs of the Church are instituted for the purpose of helping members of the Church live harmoniously within Church procedures. Many of these official guidelines are sent to priesthood and auxiliary leaders in a newsletter called the Priesthood Bulletin (PB), from which most of the items here are quoted. Items of general interest from other sources are also included on occasion.

Sunday School Discontinues Memorized Recitations. Memorized recitations, which have been a part of the Sunday School worship service on fast day, have been discontinued. The purpose of these memorized recitations has been to make selected scriptures used by missionaries a part of the memory reserve of each class member. Sunday School presidencies now believe this goal can be achieved better in the classroom.

Temple Attendance After Civil Marriage. The general policy of the Church toward sealings after a civil marriage is as follows:

“‘Where a couple are married by a civil ceremony, they should not be recommended to the temple until after a year has elapsed since the civil ceremony was solemnized.’ This statement has raised the question whether it is in order to recommend worthy couples to attend the temple even though they have to wait for their sealing.

“(1) If a person has been endowed before a civil marriage and is in every respect worthily qualified to go to the temple, it is proper to issue a temple recommend within the year following the civil marriage, but not a recommend for his own sealing to a spouse until a year has elapsed from the time of his civil marriage.

“(2) If a person has not been endowed prior to his civil marriage, then no temple recommend may be issued until a year has expired after the civil marriage.

“This instruction does not apply at those temples where the civil law requires that marriages be performed outside the temple, provided that the couple go to the temple for sealing immediately … after their civil marriage. Other exceptions may be granted only by the First Presidency. …”—PB

Beware of Swindlers. “An increasing number of Church members are being victimized by swindlers. Unscrupulous persons use many devious ways to cheat and rob the innocent. Most of those defrauded believe they are making worthy profitable investments. Some have the false impression that they are complying with authorized requests from banks or other firms in the process of making an audit.

“If Church members are not knowledgeable of deals or promoters and feel the business plan offered them is questionable, they are encouraged to contact law enforcement officials or other appropriate agencies to make sure they are not being cheated or becoming involved in some type of illegal promotion or enterprise.”—PB

Temple, Family Files for Ordinance Work. “Except for deceased close relatives, members of the Church are encouraged to submit genealogical data for temple work to be placed in the temple file. This means that the cleared names will be sent to the various temples as needed and that the temple work will be done by anyone going to the temple to do work for the dead. The procedure for designating names for the temple file is simply not to mark them for family file.

“Members of the Church may request that names of (1) their direct-line ancestors, (2) immediate families of such ancestors, and (3) descendants of great-grandparents of the individual submitting the names be placed in the family file at a specified temple. Members of the family are allowed sixty days to do temple work for these deceased relatives, after which time temple personnel are authorized to transfer family-file names to the temple file. Names not in the three categories specified in this paragraph should not be designated for family-file procedure.”—PB