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Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:15 pm
by TroyYoung
What is the correct protocol to follow when a student is away at school (so their records are in a YSA ward), but they wish to receive their patriarchal blessing from the patriarch in their home stake?

When a young man/young woman is living in their home ward, the whole process can be handled within LCR electronically. However, if a student's records are in their YSA ward, it isn't possible for the home ward bishop to initiate the process in LCR without requesting the student's membership record...which will mess things up in their YSA ward if, for example, they have a calling.

I thought of using the "Manage Out-of-Unit Members" feature of LCR, but those members are unavailable to create a patriarchal blessing recommend.

Another option would be to have the student's YSA bishop complete the recommend and select the patriarch in the student's home stake, but the recommend creation page only allows that if there is no patriarch available in the student's YSA stake.

At this point, the only options I can think of are:
  1. request the student's membership record and then send it back after creating the Patriarchal Blessing Recommend...and let the YSA ward deal with any calling that gets lost
  2. have the home ward bishop fill out a paper recommend and bypass the online system
Other thoughts?

Re: Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:39 pm
by russellhltn
TroyYoung wrote:but they wish to receive their patriarchal blessing from the patriarch in their home stake?
There's always Option #3 - they don't get their wish. Either they get their blessing from the YSA stake, or wait until they come home for summer.

Re: Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:40 am
by lajackson
TroyYoung wrote:At this point, the only options I can think of are:
  1. request the student's membership record and then send it back after creating the Patriarchal Blessing Recommend...and let the YSA ward deal with any calling that gets lost
  2. have the home ward bishop fill out a paper recommend and bypass the online system
Option 2. [EDIT: The YSA ward bishop should do the interview. See my next post that follows.] Some YSA have a special relationship with the patriarch in their home stake and wish to have him give them their patriarchal blessing. It also allows for parents to be involved if desired.

A member of the stake presidency in the YSA stake will also need to sign the recommend if the member is going to receive a patriarchal blessing from another stake patriarch.

Re: Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:09 pm
by sbradshaw
The bishop where there person is living (YSA ward) is the one who has stewardship for the member and is in the best position to judge worthiness and readiness. I think he is the one who should conduct the interview and fill out the recommend. I don't know what the policies are around other patriarchs giving blessings, but which bishop does the interview seems to be set in stone.

Re: Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:11 pm
by scgallafent
sbradshaw wrote:I don't know what the policies are around other patriarchs giving blessings
Those policies are found in Handbook 1, 16.12.2.

Re: Patriarchal blessings for students away at school

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:30 pm
by lajackson
sbradshaw wrote:The bishop where there person is living (YSA ward) is the one who has stewardship for the member and is in the best position to judge worthiness and readiness. I think he is the one who should conduct the interview and fill out the recommend.
I misread the options TroyYoung provided. In Option 2, I agree with sbradshaw that the bishop of the YSA ward should do the interview. If the blessing will be given by the home patriarch, a member of the YSA stake presidency will also need to interview, and the form will have to be printed on paper because the online patriarchal blessing system only works within the stake where the membership record resides.