If a man, once sealed in the temple, wants to be sealed again (and the first wife is living) he has to get a letter from her. It's not called a 'cancellation' it's called a 'temple clearance' but he still has to have it. Not only did DH's bishop make sure he had one, but that morning at the temple right before the wedding they asked to see our marriage license AND our temple clearance.
It IS a hassle, and frankly I'm shocked that any priesthood leaders (or temple sealers) would let it slip through the cracks for your friend... The thing is that a civil divorce does NOT break a temple sealing. So you can be divorced all you want and you can re-marry civilly no problem...but if you want to be sealed you HAVE to do the paperwork to get the prior sealing broken. Sortof like you can be married and be separated and living with someone else, but you can't actually get married again until you do the paperwork to break the first one...
ETA
I *know* for a fact that the paperwork goes through Salt LAke and the office of the president--I can tell you a story about ours.
I think i know which friend you're talking about...perhaps she misunderstood the question when you asked her? If it's who I think it is, I trust her to be honest...but I also know the facts on this since I've been there! Perhaps this has not always been the policy? I dunno...I just knwo that we had to do the paperwork, and that getting a letter from DH's ex was part of it (and two years later when SHE wanted to get sealed, he had to write a letter for her as well). In both cases, the letter went to the bishop, not to the former spouse...so perhaps your friend never actually saw the letter and didn't realize there was one or whatever?
It IS a hassle, and frankly I'm shocked that any priesthood leaders (or temple sealers) would let it slip through the cracks for your friend... The thing is that a civil divorce does NOT break a temple sealing. So you can be divorced all you want and you can re-marry civilly no problem...but if you want to be sealed you HAVE to do the paperwork to get the prior sealing broken. Sortof like you can be married and be separated and living with someone else, but you can't actually get married again until you do the paperwork to break the first one...
ETA
I *know* for a fact that the paperwork goes through Salt LAke and the office of the president--I can tell you a story about ours.
I think i know which friend you're talking about...perhaps she misunderstood the question when you asked her? If it's who I think it is, I trust her to be honest...but I also know the facts on this since I've been there! Perhaps this has not always been the policy? I dunno...I just knwo that we had to do the paperwork, and that getting a letter from DH's ex was part of it (and two years later when SHE wanted to get sealed, he had to write a letter for her as well). In both cases, the letter went to the bishop, not to the former spouse...so perhaps your friend never actually saw the letter and didn't realize there was one or whatever?
. My first marriage was NOT a temple marriage. I think there was a miscommunication there. However, I have had siblings and a good friend who had first marriages be temple marriages and when they got their sealings cancelled (or cleared, whatever word you want to use
), they wrote a letter requesting it, but did not have 'permission' from their ex spouses. Perhaps their cases are different from other cases because in all of these cases the ex's were either abusive, not in good standing with the church. or were excommunicated. Either way, them's the facts of what happened.
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