LDS Church changes its policy on civil ceremonies and temple seals, allowing more family members to take part in weddings

The members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who get married at a civil ceremony no longer need to wait a year to get married in the church. one of the temples of faith, a major change that could put an end to the sometimes painful practice that prevented some parents from seeing the marriages of their own children.

In a letter to church leaders around the world on Monday, the ruling First Presidency wrote: "As much as possible, leaders should encourage couples to marry and be sealed at the temple. If a licensed wedding is not allowed in the temple, or when a wedding at the temple would make parents or their immediate family members feel excluded, a civil ceremony followed by A temple sealing is allowed. "

The letter continues: "We anticipate that this change will provide more opportunities for the family to come together in love and unity during the special marriage period."

According to the church, she has observed this practice "for many years in more than half of the countries" where she operates – countries that require couples to marry civilly.

In the letter, the members of the First Presidency – President Russell M. Nelson and his advisers, Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring – emphasized: "This policy change should not be interpreted as a reduction in 39, emphasis on the sealing of the temple. Sealing a husband and wife in the temple is of eternal importance and is the ultimate experience on the path of the covenant. "

They called for civil marriage ceremonies to be "simple and dignified," adding that they can be celebrated in the chapels of Latter-day Saints.

The exclusion of loved ones from temple marriages has been a sore point for decades among Latter-day Saints and their family and friends outside the religion or among those who are members but who do not meet the standards of entry to the temple. temple.

Sometimes excluded from divided families at a time when marriages usually unite them.

Jolene, a Christian from Utah County, said many years ago, after converting her daughter to Mormonism, that Jolene was married and had been married to the Salt Lake Temple. City. "I kissed him goodbye at home and then cried on his sister's shoulder. My husband went to work.

For 20 years, the devoted mother attended all conferences, school performances and sports events between parents and teachers, said Jolene, who asked that only her first name be used to not offend her daughter or her neighbors. She was there for the first words of her daughter, her first step, her first prom.

Being excluded at her wedding – a "unique and special" moment in her daughter's life – was deeply hurtful, Jolene told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Some engaged couples have tried to alleviate the pain by organizing a ceremony outside the temple. Some gathered their families near the temple, ready to take pictures. Others simply argue that the temple ceremony – which, according to Latter-day Saints, can "seal" a wedding for all eternity – is too important to be diluted with other traditions and for that their families and friends understand.

These loved ones often had to wait in a designated temple antechamber to greet the happy couples and congratulate them on their marriage.

The writer and poet of Latter-day Saints, Emma Lou Thayne, spent several years in the waiting room of the Salt Lake Temple, where she was enlarged and improved under the administration of the deceased President Gordon B. Hinckley.

"These people used to be taken to a corner or left outside," Thayne said. "Now they have this beautiful room, which gives them the feeling of being in a sacred space."

But they were not the room where wishes were exchanged.

For years, many Latter-day Saints living outside of Utah first organized a civil ceremony and then went to a temple as soon as they could. The former church president, Spencer W. Kimball, for example, married his young wife, Camilla Eyring, civilly to Arizona in 1917, then went to St. George to be there. sealed about seven months later. Similarly, Mitt and Ann Romney exchanged rings during a civil ceremony at her parents' home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, then flew to Utah the next day, where they will be sealed at the Salt Lake Temple. .

This two-step approach has been the norm for Latter-day Saints in many countries of Europe and South America, where governments require that wedding ceremonies be open to the public.

But in the United States and Canada, the one-year waiting period for closing a temple after a civil marriage had been the rule for decades. Thus, many members were married and sealed at the same time.

Newly baptized church members still have to wait a year from the date of their confirmation to get married in a temple.

This story will be updated.