Aimee K
First time ordinations (after April 2014) should be done within a fellowship. All who are ordained in these communities should keep a record of the line of authority and pass it down. Be prepared to defend those lines of authority using the records kept. All of the women who vote to sustain should not only sign the certificate, but also record it in diaries or journals. Let records be kept so if anyone questions, there will be abundant witnesses and documentation. There can be conferences that can be called by anyone, but must include seven women if the business includes priesthood ordination. There is no need for any building to be purchased or built. Meetings can be anywhere.
Preserving The Restoration, paragraph 70 (approx. page 513)
When you ordain, you should ordain no one to an office; you only confer the priesthood.
What’s the significance of April 2014?
At the April 2014 general conference the Lord ended all claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to claim it is led by the priesthood after the vote to sustain those who had abused their authority.
Certificates
Something that has been the center of much angst in the Covenant Christian community is the subject of certificates. Specifically Priesthood Certificates that authorize a man to perform public ordinances within the community.
However, something that has been wholly overlooked in the conversation is the distinction between a Priesthood Certificate and a Certificate of Ordination.
The LDS church is laboring under the pretenses of the previous dispensation and jealously proclaims its rights and keys as they relate to the priesthood. And they’ve actually been fairly good at documenting the lines of authority and will provide a Certificate of Ordination for all young men who are newly ordained.
The Certificate of Ordination does not convey priesthood. But it provides a written record of the transfer of priesthood man-to-man. Power in the priesthood is conferred under the direction of Heaven. But that’s a whole other conversation.
Fortunately, losing the piece of paper does not mean loss of priesthood. These ordinances are important and are documented in the official records of the church.
Many men in the Covenant Christian community received priesthood prior to April 2014, so the status of their priesthood has not been in question.
However, we are now almost twelve and a half years beyond April 2014. Baby boys born into the Covenant Christian community that month would presumably be ready to receive priesthood if we are keeping the LDS tradition of eligibility at 12 years old.
But in this new dispensation…how is this to be done correctly? We have precious little direction on NEW ordinations; the totality of which was cited at the beginning of this blog post.
I sat in my family’s ward sacrament meeting today as a man was presented to the congregation for sustaining to the Melchizedek priesthood. I did not raise my hand, neither to sustain nor to oppose the ordination. I consider myself a stranger in a foreign land despite occupying their organ bench every other week.
Fellowship
First time ordinations (after April 2014) should be done within a fellowship.
At the most basic level your primary and core fellowship is your family.
Truly, truly I say unto you as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them; even so am I in the midst of you.
A Fellowship is TWO or three gathered in His name. Therefore, a husband and wife worshiping together meet this standard. And since the math of one plus one in a marital context can equal three, five, or even thirteen…voilà!
I believe we have a de facto definition of home fellowship; and that is a family worshiping together at home. It’s likely that LDS culture has conditioned us to think that a fellowship should look like the equivalent of a local ward/branch. But God is much more intimate than that. Two will do.
In practice, fellowships do extend beyond our immediate families and include close friends and neighbors. Close friends and neighbors often become in-laws as children grow up and new families branch out. There are plenty of examples of that being the case.
But getting back to the smallest unit of society…
Men do not need a Priesthood Certificate to perform ordinances INSIDE their own family such as baptism and blessing the sacrament. Ordination to priesthood is also an ordinance and falls within that same scope. Therefore, it logically follows that within the family, fathers may ordain their sons to priesthood without the father having a Priesthood Certificate, so long as seven women sustain the ordination.
A man ordained to priesthood prior to April 2014 has a Certificate of Ordination from the LDS church that is intact and undisputed.
A Priesthood Certificate signed by women in the Covenant Christian community authorizes a man already holding priesthood to baptize, bless the sacrament, and ordain men outside of his family.
Records
All who are ordained in these communities should keep a record of the line of authority and pass it down. Be prepared to defend those lines of authority using the records kept.
Write it down. Write it down. Write it down.
We should be as jealous with our lines of authority as the LDS church has been. They are meticulous when it comes to record keeping.
Role of Women
All of the women who vote to sustain should not only sign the certificate, but also record it in diaries or journals.
There still needs to be seven women, but WHAT are the women sustaining? We are a few sentences past the context. We’re still just talking about NEW, first-time ordination.
Therefore it is a certificate…of what? ORDINATION
A certificate is a document serving as evidence or as written testimony, as of status, qualifications, privileges, or the truth of something.
In this context, the certificate is serving as proof of ordination.
It’s very likely that young men ordained in the Covenant Christian community over the last ten years have only ONE certificate that has blended both ordination and authorization to perform public ordinances. It’s not wrong, but we have one document doing two things whereas former LDS men have had the benefit of two certificates. One that is unquestioned. And one that can be revoked by a council of twelve women.
Again, priesthood ordination is unaffected by revocation. The Certificate of Ordination remains unaffected and intact as an historical document.
This distinction becomes really important in situations where a son would like to receive priesthood from his father so that he can bless and serve his future wife and children, but does not want a revocable Priesthood Certificate for public service.
Meeting the requirements
There can be conferences that can be called by anyone, but must include seven women if the business includes priesthood ordination.
Here we have seemingly different instruction on how to conduct ordinations. In a conference rather than a fellowship?
Recall that the fellowship is the “should” place. But when a fellowship/family doesn’t have seven women (between mother, grandmas, aunts and sisters) to sustain the ordination, the business of first time ordination “can” be taken to a conference (any conference will do) and “must” include seven women.
This seems very similar to how a Priesthood Certificate is revoked. A women’s council is ideally held in the home fellowship, but if there aren’t twelve women the business is taken to a general conference.
In both cases additional women are found at conferences to meet the minimum requirement, but ideally business regarding priesthood is to be conducted within the home fellowship.
A Dream for the Future
Only one of my six sons was ordained to priesthood prior to April 2014. For me this is an important detail. The remaining five need legitimate first-time ordinations that follow the pattern outlined in revelation for this dispensation.
When the time comes here’s what I would like to do for my other sons. After the sustaining vote of six additional women — grandmas (2), sister (1), aunts (2) and sister-in-law (1)— I would create a Certificate of Ordination for him that documents the NEW date of ordination from his father conferring the priesthood, the line of priesthood authority traced back through the Restoration to Jesus Christ, and the signatures of all seven women, myself included. I’d make seven photocopies and give one to each of the women for us to record in our personal journals.
After this son is married, and if he wants one with the blessing of his wife, I would help create a separate Priesthood Certificate vouching for him as one worthy to perform public ordinances in the community.
I would keep these two certificates separate. One stands as the historical record of a singular event and its line of authority, and can withstand scrutiny. The other may be updated from time to time to reflect current sustaining for public service throughout his life.
