If you step away

If You Decide to Resign

What formally leaving actually involves, what it changes on paper, and what it cannot touch.

Read this first

You never have to do this. There is no deadline, no one can make you, and staying quietly on the records costs you nothing you are not already giving. Resignation is for the people who want the door closed for their own reasons. If that is not you yet, or ever, skip this page with a clear conscience.

The process

Write it downA written, signed request to your bishop is the formal trigger. The General Handbook, section 32.14.9, covers name removal.

It goes up the chainThe bishop submits the request through the stake president to Church headquarters. It is administrative. There is no council to face and no defense to prepare; resignation is a request they honor, not a discipline they impose.

If you would rather not meet anyoneA free service run by an attorney, quitmormon.com, files on your behalf, and many people use it precisely so there are no visits and no meetings.

Confirmation arrivesYou get written confirmation when the removal is processed. Keep it.

What it changes, per the handbook

Name removal cancels the effects of baptism and confirmation, withdraws the priesthood from a male member, and revokes temple blessings, sealings included. Coming back later is possible, by baptism, after a thorough interview. Those are the Church’s terms, stated in its handbook, and you should know them before you file.

What it cannot touch

Your civil marriage is a legal fact; a canceled sealing has no effect on it. Your family’s own memberships are theirs, not yours. Nothing is announced over the pulpit, and no one is notified beyond the leaders who process it. The version of your life where resignation triggers a public event is not how the process works.

If you are financially dependent, wait

The warning on the homeschooling page applies here doubly: if losing your family’s support would cost you housing or school, the paperwork can wait and will still be here. That warning

Resignation is paperwork. Peace is the project.

File it if and when it serves you. It proves nothing to anyone, and it does not need to.

Why this page is here

Not to hand you a form. It is here because the unknown keeps people frozen for years, and the facts turn out to be small: a letter, a chain of signatures, a confirmation. Whatever you decide, decide it knowing the mechanics are the least of it.

This page is part of a 76-topic library. Every claim links to its source, most of them the Church’s own. Read it on the full site or browse every topic.