Patriarchal Blessing form - District Pres Help

[mnshowlett]

I am a branch president in a district. We don't have a mission president or stake president. The organization is branch president, district president, area presidency. I recently submitted three patriarchal blessing requests through the PB system. It is sleek and seems to work well. However, the district president is unable to view or approve these requests. He has to ask the area presidency to review and take action on these requests. This slows things down and there are candidates who are waiting months for activity.

Is there a way to enable the district president to review and approve these requests?
The area presidency clerk recommended perhaps submitting an old PDF request form which he can then have the area presidency approve, but I can't find the old form and it seems counter-intuitive to go back to paper forms when the PB system should cover these scenarios.

Are there any ideas how we can proceed? We are in an overseas location and families are back in the US hoping to get the patriarchal blessings done while on leave.

Thanks in advance.
Mark

[russellhltn]

I would suggest having the District President contact support on why they're not able to see this. It's possible he's looking in the wrong place or there's an issue with his account or computer.

General Handbook 0.5 indicates that the district president would normally have the same rights as a stake president unless listed separately.

[lajackson]

I would suggest having the District President contact support on why they're not able to see this.

Although a district president can do much of what a stake president does, a district president is not involved in the patriarchal blessing interview process. The member is interviewed by his or her branch president and then by a member of the mission presidency.

If the branch/district reports directly to an area presidency, and is not part of a mission, the area presidency needs to work out a process for completing the second interview.

According to Handbook 38.2.10.4, a member of the patriarch's stake presidency must also approve the recommend through the Patriarchal Blessing System. Perhaps the area presidency would be willing to accept that interview if they are not able to conduct the second interview.

In the end, a member of the area presidency and of the patriarch's stake presidency have to enter their approvals into the Patriarchal Blessing System after the branch president completes his interview and starts the recommend process.

[scgallafent]

There are cases where the First Presidency will authorize a district president to have "expanded authority." In those cases, the district president is specifically authorized to do some things that are normally not allowed for a district president. It appears that is the case for your district president.

The letter from the First Presidency specifically lists what the district president is authorized to do. He should review that with the area president. If he is authorized to interview candidates for patriarchal blessing recommends, this may be a case where the software doesn't recognize that approval. The area president could submit a request to have the software updated to support that situation. I don't know where that would fall in other development priorities.

[russellhltn]

Although a district president can do much of what a stake president does, a district president is not involved in the patriarchal blessing interview process. The member is interviewed by his or her branch president and then by a member of the mission presidency.

If the branch/district reports directly to an area presidency, and is not part of a mission, the area presidency needs to work out a process for completing the second interview.

I find the Handbook oddly quiet about the details who does the interview. Hence, my generalization from 0.5.

From what others are saying, this is an unusually complicated setup.

[lajackson]

I find the Handbook oddly quiet about the details who does the interview.

The reference I cited is very specific about who does the interview. Nevertheless, your generalization from 0.5 is often correct.

The post before yours, however, has the exact answer. The district president should confer with the area president and the matter will be resolved, whether by the area president himself or through expanded authority from the First Presidency to the district president.

If the district president is given the authority to conduct the interview but is not able to record it in the system, the area president would be able to do it for him until the software is updated, if that is the final solution.