All recommends must be created in the Patriarchal Blessing System. When converting over from submission of paper blessings, patriarchs should continue numbering blessings from their previous paper sequence.
All paper patriarchal blessings should be sent to the Church History Library.
Church History Library
ATTN: Patriarchal Blessings
15 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-1600
Patriarchs outside the United States and Canada should send paper blessings to their area office, which will forward them to the Church History Library.
Bishops and Branch Presidents
Branch Within a Mission
Mission Presidents
If a member would like to receive a blessing from a father, grandfather, or great grandfather who lives outside their stake, begin the recommend as usual. On the patriarch selection pages, choose Other, then select Member Related to Patriarch. Search for the patriarch by name, then submit the recommend for both local and remote approval.
Begin the recommend as usual. On the patriarch selection page, choose Other, then Language Unavailable. Submit the recommend for approval by both the local stake president and remote patriarch’s stake president or area president. The patriarch will be assigned by the local approver.
Open the recommend and click Cancel. If the member has already scheduled an appointment, the patriarch must cancel the appointment in the system before the recommend can be canceled.
“On rare occasions after giving a blessing, a patriarch may recognize that he has omitted the declaration of lineage. He may then lay his hands again on the recipient’s head and give an addendum in which he identifies the lineage.”
An addendum is given only when a declaration of lineage was not included in the original blessing. It should be brief—only two or three sentences to declare lineage. No other additions are authorized. An addendum is considered part of the original blessing, not an additional blessing.
To request an addendum, start a new recommend for the member. If the selected member already has a blessing, the leader will be prompted to request an addendum or a replacement blessing. Select Addendum and complete the required fields. Addendum recommends require approval from the recipient’s stake president.
Occasionally a member may request a replacement patriarchal blessing. However, this is generally not encouraged and is rarely approved. A replacement blessing requires approval of the stake, area, or mission president and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
If a new recommend is initiated and the selected member already has a patriarchal blessing, the leader will be prompted to request an addendum or a replacement blessing. Select Replacement Blessing and complete the required fields, including the reason for the request.
The stake president or area president will review the request and rationale from the bishop or branch president. If he approves the request, he will add his own comments and submit the request to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for approval.
The stake president will be notified of the decision from the Quorum of the Twelve to approve or deny the request. He will communicate that information to the bishop or branch president and, if the request is approved, the patriarch.
If approved, the bishop will provide a copy of the Next Steps document to the member who can then contact the patriarch to schedule the blessing.
To ensure consistency of blessing formatting worldwide, formatting options are limited to font size and left or full justification, both available in the transcription screen. The margins and spacing between paragraphs may not be adjusted.
The blessing copy submitted to the Church History Department will not be signed. The Patriarch should sign the physical copy provided to the recipient.
If the blessing was submitted on paper, the patriarch should retype the blessing in its entirety and mail it to the Church History Library:
Church History Library
ATTN: Patriarchal Blessings
15 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-1600
If the blessing was submitted online and it has been fewer than 60 days since submission, the patriarch can click on the member’s name in the Patriarchal Blessing System, and click Reopen in the upper right corner to make the desired changes. When he is done making changes, he will submit the blessing, and it will overwrite what is already on file at the Church History Library.
If the blessing was submitted online and it has been more than 60 days since submission, the patriarch should retype the blessing in its entirety and send the blessing in a Word document along with the member’s name, membership record number, and stake to pbfeedback@ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Because the blessing has already been archived, Church History Library staff will make the correction. Include any information that will help Church History Library staff identify the blessing recipient.
If the patriarch is deceased or unable to make corrections, corrections cannot be made.
Patriarchs should give members a signed copy of the blessing, even if it is submitted digitally. The member may also request access to a digital copy online: https://pb.churchofjesuschrist.org/pbrequest/home/personal.
Click on the member’s name to open the recommend, then click Cancel Appointment.
Blessings should be printed on acid-free bond paper.
The stake president should click Blessings in the upper right corner. A blessing may be reviewed for up to one year from the submission date.
The stake president should click Patriarchs in the upper-right corner, then select the patriarch’s name. From there, the stake president can proxy into the patriarch’s account to submit blessings in progress or cancel appointments for blessings not given.
The following statuses may be displayed in the Status column of the Overview screen:
The following statuses may be displayed in the Status column of the Overview screen: