FP invites Lavina F Anderson to be baptised, but there’s a snag…
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2024 3:45 pm
…she died a year ago.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/11 ... eadmitted/Five years after top Latter-day Saint leaders refused to readmit excommunicated member Lavina Fielding Anderson to the fold, she finally got her wish.
The faith’s governing First Presidency now has granted Anderson, one of the famed “September Six,” a rebaptism and restoration of her temple “blessings” and membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
No telling how it will affect her, though, because, well, she died a year ago.
I suppose the question I’ve got is why did it take her to be dead for 12 months before they would reinstate her? Now, because it’s a family Church you’d think the First Presidency would let her son conduct the proxy ordinance…but no…A family member may seek this approval, the handbook instructs, “after one year has passed since the person’s death.”
As the first anniversary of Anderson’s Oct. 29, 2023, death at age 79 approached, her son, Christian Anderson, wished to see her be rebaptized by a living participant.
“I, naturally, wanted to be involved in (or at least aware of) my own mother’s restored blessings,” he says. “So, on Oct. 29, I logged into FamilySearch.org [the church’s genealogical arm] to try to register to perform baptisms for the dead. There was a lock on the record, and I was told to contact their help desk. ... I filled out a brief form that included my FamilySearch ID and hers and a bit of contact information.”
So as well as punishing the mother, they vindictively punish the son as well. Disgusting.Christian also added a brief note: “I would like to fulfill her wish to be rebaptized in a holy temple. I would like to emphasize that though she was excommunicated in 1993, she continued to attend her ward faithfully for nearly 30 years until prevented by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent declining health.”
Instead, the First Presidency authorized others to do the rituals, known as “ordinances,” without inviting him to be included in any way or informing him it was happening until eight days after it was a fait accompli.