Sealing is an ordinance (ritual) performed in Latter Day Saint temples by a person holding the sealing authority.[1] The purpose of this ordinance is to seal familial relationships, making possible the existence of family relationships throughout eternity.[2] Sealings are typically performed as marriages or as sealing of children to parents. They were performed prior to the death of Joseph Smith (the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement), and are currently performed in the largest of the faiths that came from the movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). LDS Church teachings place great importance on the specific authority required to perform these sealings. Church doctrine teaches that this authority, called the priesthood, corresponds to that given to Saint Peter in Matthew 16:19.
Faithful Latter Day Saints believe civil marriages are dissolved at death, but that a couple who has been sealed in a temple will be married beyond physical death and the resurrection if they remain faithful. This means that in the afterlife they and their family will be together forever. An illustrative difference in the marriage ceremony performed in the LDS Church's temples is the replacement of the words "until death do us part" with "for time and all eternity".
The LDS Church recognizes other monogamous, heterosexual marriages, both civil and religious, although they believe that such marriages will not continue after death because eternal marriages must be performed by priesthood authority. Eternal marriages are also performed vicariously for the deceased, of effect after receiving all other saving ordinances. As with sealings of living persons, they are sealed with their spouse and their children.
Couples who have children born to them before being sealed may have their children sealed to them afterwards. Couples who have children after being sealed need not have their children sealed to them in a separate ceremony. Children born to sealed parents are born in the covenant and are automatically sealed to their parents. Adopted children may be sealed to their adoptive parents once the adoption has been legally finalized.
The union of a sealed couple is regarded as valid only if both individuals have kept their religious covenants and followed Christ's teachings. Just as deceased individuals may refuse any temple ordinance (such as a sealing) done by proxy on their behalf, couples, parents, and children who were sealed to each other in life may refuse to accept a sealing of which they were a part. No one will be sealed to any one with whom they do not want to be sealed.
Only worthy members of the LDS Church, who hold current valid temple recommends, can attend and witness sealings. Non-member family and friends generally wait in the temple waiting room during the sealing ceremony.
Since the LDS Church rejects same-sex marriages, these unions are not performed in temples and are not recognized by the church.
Ceremony and vows
A woman in ceremonial temple clothing used during the wedding ceremony sits next to the sealing room altar over which the sealings are performed. The infinite reflection of the double mirrors is seen in the background.
A temple sealing for a living couple has the man and woman kneel on opposite sides of an altar in a temple sealing room while wearing ceremonial temple robes.[3] They grasp each other's right hand while facing double mirrors that create an infinite reflection.[4][5] The male sealer then reads the following vows to groom (and then repeats the same vows with the changes noted in parentheses) to which they are to respond "yes".[6]
Brother [last name], do you take Sister [last name] by the right hand and receive her unto yourself to be your lawfully wedded wife (give yourself to him to be his lawfully wedded wife, and receive him to be your lawfully wedded husband), for time and all eternity, with a covenant and promise that you will observe and keep all the laws, rites, and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of matrimony in the new and everlasting covenant; and this you do in the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses of your own free will and choice?
They are then pronounced husband and wife and promised blessings.[7][4]
Civil recognition
Not all countries recognize marriages performed by clergy outside of the state religion. In these cases, temple marriages are not seen as legally binding, and a civil marriage must also be performed. In other cases, marriages must be performed in a public forum for any to witness or formally object. In such circumstances, government representatives or authorized clergy will perform the civilly-recognized public wedding prior to the temple sealing.
In the United States and some other countries, bishops, stake presidents, and temple sealers have the civil authority to perform marriages. Marriages performed in the temple by a temple sealer are recognized by the government.
In the United Kingdom the law requires that a marriage be performed at a public ceremony (the same also holds true for Austria). Since attendance at a temple sealing is restricted, a couple will be married locally by a person who is duly authorized to perform marriages. This person will usually be a registrar of marriages. The marriage can be performed at the local registrar's office, or in some cases at an LDS meetinghouse. Some bishops or branch presidents have been officially given the title of a deputy registrar, and as such are legally able to perform a civil ceremony in the meetinghouse. The couple will then travel to the nearest LDS temple (London or Preston) for their temple sealing.
In Brazil, all marriages must be performed in the state in which the couple resides. Since not all Brazilian states have a temple within their boundaries, the couple may then have their sealing performed at the nearest temple upon completion of the civil marriage. Also, according to Brazilian law, the sealing is recognized by the government as long as it respects the requirements for a civil marriage.[8]
In several countries (e.g. Argentina, Mexico, Germany) all marriages are performed at the local municipality by a registrar who is duly authorized to perform marriages. The couple will then go to the temple to have the sealing ordinance performed.
In May 2019, the LDS Church removed a prior one-year waiting period of couples deemed to be worthy between civil and temple marriage.[9] In countries where a civil ceremony is required before marriage, the couples must receive their sealing as soon as practical after the civil ceremony.[10]
Cancellation
Although a divorce dissolves a civilly-recognized marriage, the church still recognizes a sealing as binding. A couple who has been sealed may request to have their sealing canceled, which generally only occurs under special circumstances, and is only granted by the church's president. Some refer to this informally as a "temple divorce", but the terminology designated by church leaders is "cancellation of a sealing". If a sealing is canceled, the sealing between them and any children remains in force, though the couple is no longer sealed. The sealing together of husband and wife and the sealing of children to parents are separate ordinances.[11]
A cancellation typically follows after a civil divorce when a woman seeks to be sealed to another man. A man must apply for a sealing clearance to marry another woman after he has been civilly divorced, even if he has already received a cancellation of sealing.[10]
Legacy of plural marriage
It has been argued that the LDS Church's policy on sealings and cancellations reflect its doctrine of plural marriage. Although plural marriage is currently prohibited in the church, a man can be sealed to multiple women, in the case of widowers who are sealed to both their deceased and living wives. Additionally, men who are dead may be sealed by proxy to all women to whom they were legally married while alive. Recent changes in church policy also allow women to be sealed to multiple men, but only after both she and her husband(s) are dead.[10]
LDS Church doctrine is not entirely specific on the status of men or women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses. There are at least two possibilities:[original research?]
Regardless of how many people a man or woman is sealed to by proxy, they will only remain with one of them in the afterlife, and that the remaining spouses, who might still merit the full benefits of exaltation that come from being sealed, would then be given to another person in order to ensure each has an eternal marriage.
These sealings create effective plural marriages that will continue after death. There are no church teachings clarifying whether polyandrous relationships can exist in the afterlife, so some church members doubt whether this possibility would apply to women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses. The possibility for women to be sealed to multiple men is a recent policy change enacted in 1998.[citation needed] Church leaders have neither explained this change, nor its doctrinal implications. Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are merely offered to the person in the afterlife.
1 2 Hyde, John (1857). Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs (Michigan Historical Reprinted.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Library. p.108. ISBN1-4255-3949-1. I, kneeling on one, and my wife kneeling on the other side of the altar between us, grasping each other's hands across its cushioned top, with the 'patriarchal grip,' Kimball demanded the usual questions as to willingness, and pronounced us 'man and wife for time and for all eternity, by the power and authority of the holy priesthood invested in me, and I seal upon your head the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for time and for all eternity, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.' Text also available at the University of Michigan website.
↑ Zauzmer, Julie (12 August 2016). "New Mormon temple offers glimpse into secret shrine". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Washington Post. In the sealing chamber, the couple getting married kneels on either side of a wood-and-marble altar, where they can grasp each other's hands while looking into two facing mirrors – creating the effect of an endless reflection, symbolizing that the spouses are bound to each other for all eternity.
↑ "Eternal Marriage". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church. In the temple, Latter-day Saint couples kneel at one of the sacred altars in the presence of their family and friends who have received the temple endowment.[...] This is done by one who holds the holy priesthood of God and has been given the authority to perform this sacred ordinance. He acts under the direction of the Lord and promises the couple the blessings of exaltation[...] depend[ing] on obedience to the laws of God.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is the largest Latter Day Saint denomination, tracing its roots to its founding by Joseph Smith during the Second Great Awakening. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, as of 2023, it has over 17.2 million members of which over 6.8 million live in the U.S. The church also reports over 99,000 volunteer missionaries and 350 temples.
Polygamy was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.
In Mormonism, the endowment is a two-part ordinance (ceremony) designed for participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the first ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the first endowment ceremony.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, an ordinance is a sacred rite or ceremony that has spiritual and symbolic meanings and act as a means of conveying divine grace. Ordinances are physical acts which signify or symbolize an underlying spiritual act; for some ordinances, the spiritual act is the finalization of a covenant between the ordinance recipient and God.
In the Latter Day Saint movement the second anointing is the pinnacle ordinance of the temple and an extension of the endowment ceremony. Founder Joseph Smith taught that the function of the ordinance was to ensure salvation, guarantee exaltation, and confer godhood. In the ordinance, a participant is anointed as a "priest and king" or a "priestess and queen", and is sealed to the highest degree of salvation available in Mormon theology.
The patriarchal priesthood is associated with the patriarchal order found in Mormonism and is especially connected with celestial marriage.
The status of women in Mormonism has been a source of public debate since before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. Various denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement have taken different paths on the subject of women and their role in the church and in society. Views range from the full equal status and ordination of women to the priesthood, as practiced by the Community of Christ, to a patriarchal system practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the ultra-patriarchal plural marriage system practiced by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and other Mormon fundamentalist groups.
Celestial marriage is a doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven. This is a unique teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.
In Mormonism, the sealing power is the means whereby all "covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations" attain "efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead."
In temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an ordinance room is a room where the ceremony known as the Endowment is administered, as well as other ordinances such as Sealings. Some temples perform a progressive-style ordinance where patrons move from room to room, each room representing a progression of mankind: the Creation room, representing the Genesis creation story; the Garden room represents the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived prior to the fall of man; the World room, where Adam and Eve lived after the fall; the Terrestrial room; and the Celestial room representing the Celestial Kingdom of God, or more commonly, heaven. There is also an additional ordinance room, the Sealing room, and at least one temple has a Holy of Holies. These two rooms are reserved for the administration of ordinances beyond the Endowment. The Holy of Holies is representative of that talked about when the temple is discussed in the bible.
The Endowment House was an early building used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to administer temple ordinances in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. From the construction of the Council House in 1852, Salt Lake City's first public building, until the construction of the Endowment House, the members of the LDS Church used the top floor of the Council House for administering temple ordinances. When this arrangement proved impractical, Brigham Young directed Truman O. Angell, architect of the Salt Lake Temple, to design a temporary temple. Completed in 1855, the building was dedicated by Heber C. Kimball and came to be called the Endowment House after the endowment ceremonies that were conducted inside it.
Mormon cosmology is the description of the history, evolution, and destiny of the physical and metaphysical universe according to Mormonism, which includes the doctrines taught by leaders and theologians of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon fundamentalism, and other denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement. Mormon cosmology draws from Biblical cosmology, but has many unique elements provided by movement founder Joseph Smith. These views are not generally shared by adherents of other Latter Day Saint movement denominations who do not self-identify as "Mormons", such as the Community of Christ.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, baptism is recognized as the first of several ordinances (rituals) of the gospel.
The law of adoption was a ritual practiced in temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1846 and 1894 in which men who held the priesthood were sealed in a father–son relationship to other men who were not part of nor even distantly related to their immediate nuclear family.
Posthumous marriage is a marriage in which at least one of the participating members is deceased.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focuses its doctrine and teaching on Jesus Christ; that he was the Son of God, born of Mary, lived a perfect life, performed miracles, bled from every pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, died on the cross, rose on the third day, appeared again to his disciples, and now resides, authoritatively, on the right hand side of God. In brief, some beliefs are in common with Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. However, teachings of the LDS Church differ significantly in other ways and encompass a broad set of doctrines, so that the above-mentioned denominations usually place the LDS Church outside the bounds of orthodox Christian teaching as summarized in the Nicene Creed.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord. Temples are considered by church members to be the most sacred structures on earth.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, marriage between a man and a woman is considered to be "ordained of God". Marriage is thought to consist of a covenant between the man, the woman, and God. The church teaches that in addition to civil marriage, which ends at death, a man and woman can enter into a celestial marriage, performed in a temple by priesthood authority, whereby the marriage and parent–child relationships resulting from the marriage will last forever in the afterlife.
Exaltation is a belief in Mormonism that after death some people will reach the highest level of salvation in the celestial kingdom and eternally live in God's presence, continue as families, become gods, create worlds, and make spirit children over whom they will govern. In the largest Mormon denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, top leaders have taught God wants exaltation for all humankind and that humans are "gods in embryo". A verse in the LDS Church's canonized scripture states that those who are exalted will become gods, and a 1925 statement from the church's highest governing body said that "All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother ... [and are] capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God."
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —Mormonism's largest denomination—there have been numerous changes to temple ceremonies over time in the church's over-200-year history. Temples are not churches or meetinghouses designated for public weekly worship services, but rather sacred places that only admit members in good standing with a recommendation from their leaders. LDS Church members perform rituals within temples. They are taught that God has deemed these ordinances as essential to achieving the faith's ultimate goal after death of exaltation. They are also taught that a vast number of dead spirits exist in a condition termed spirit prison for whom when the temple ordinances are completed will have the option to accept the ordinances and be freed of their imprisonment. These temple ordinances are performed by a living church member for themself and "on behalf of the dead" or "by proxy".
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