And I'm told that I can't request a cancelation as it is permissible, even required, that my existing sealing remain intac[t] until my ex-wife is ready to be sealed to another.
Sealings remain intact until the wife is ready to remarry. If the man wishes to remarry he needs "sealing clearance," but because of that whole polygamy thing he can technically be sealed to more than one woman at a time. The reason I've heard is that being sealed involves covenants with God that provide blessings here and now, so it would be foolish to disqualify oneself from those blessings; the sealing isn't cancelled until the day before the new wedding would take place. The eternal relationship is contingent upon the willingness of both parties to continue it (in essence couples must say "yes" twice), but the parts not dependent on the spouse will continue anyway.
Now for some fun sealing trivia facts:
1) If somebody commits adultery, divorces his/her spouse, and marries the partner in adultery, they must wait 10 years to be sealed. After the 10 years of demonstrating a healthy, stable marriage and family life, the couple may apply to the First Presidency for permission to be sealed.
2) If a couple is sealed and one is excommunicated, the blessings of the sealing are revoked for the excommunicant. The still-a-member spouse maintains the sealing blessings, including being sealed to children born in the covenant. If after one year the person is rebaptized, then after another waiting period has his/her blessings restored, the sealing blessings are restored as if never revoked. However, if there was a child born in the marriage during the time before the blessings were restored, that child must be sealed to werf's parents just like children of converts or adopted children even though there may be children born in the covenant.
3) Now for a what would you do: Say I marry a woman in the temple, we have a kid or two, but she's in a traffic accident and goes the way of Terri Schiavo. She's a vegetable with no chance of recovery, but her parents are keeping her a live for some reason. After a few years, I desire to move on with my life (like Terri Schiavo's husband did) and meet and fall in love with a woman I wish to marry in the temple. Here's the question: I obviously could legally divorce my wife in the irreversible coma and marry the Bonny-come-lately for time only. But I want to marry her in the temple for time and eternity! Can I legally divorce my coma-bound wife, not cancel the sealing, and marry a different woman legally and in the temple? I say yes, but it would require First Presidency clearance.
Note to self: be sure to be listed as next-of-kin for my husband (and vice versa) so our parents don't have the right to keep us alive for no reason. Though, I don't really want to be the one to "pull the plug" on Yellow. I think that might send me into a serious depression. So maybe I should let his parents have the final say.
Off-topic, but I think once a person is married, their parents shouldn't be allowed a say because their child is an adult and created a home and family of their own.
Imogen wrote:Off-topic, but I think once a person is married, their parents shouldn't be allowed a say because their child is an adult and created a home and family of their own.
Oh totally, but it doesn't mean that it won't take years for the court battles and injunctions to all settle down.
