Well that was fast! I emailed my resignation letter to member records very late on Wednesday night. Less than 48 hours later I received letter #1 telling me that my request "must be handled by local priesthood leaders before being processed by church employees." I wonder how long the next part of the process will take. Unfortunately I recognize the name of the Stake President and he strikes me as the kind of guy who will feel like it's his responsibility to try to talk to me. We'll see what happens next.

You have two choices at this point.

1) Figure out who your bishop is and contact him. Avoid going into any details and ask that the 30 day waiting period be waived that the stake usually waits before sending in the paperwork.

2) Dodge the bishop/others and wait for 60 days. Church headquarters will finalize your resignation after 60 days if they don't hear anything from the locals.

You are not a Mormon any longer. You quit 48 hours ago;) Congrats! Thanks for the return and report on the speedy process with email resignation. Easy, huh?

I guess a third choice is to accept a visit from the bishop and make him sorry he came by. That would be my choice.

Congratulations! You are out.

Great feeling, isn't it?

Out of curiosity, was your letter signed by a person or by Membership Records Department. I'm keeping my Greg Dodge letters; I figure they'll be worth a fortune one of these days!!

The letter was signed "Confidential Records."

No one has contacted me yet. For now I'm going to take a wait and see approach and give them time to do the paperwork. I haven't decided if I will talk to them if they call. Part of me really wants to tell somebody why I couldn't just walk away--why I had to make the statement that I'm not one of them and have my name removed from their records. But I'm not interested in arguing about it with some asshat either.

You have three choices at this point:
1) write another letter just like your original stating a) that you refuse to jump through any more of their administrative hoops due to the fact that your legal disconnection with their organization took place on their receipt of your letter #1; b) that you now require nothing from them other than a written acknowledgment of same, and; c) you will consider any local contact as harassment and stalking and will take appropriate legal action in response if such takes place.

2) deal with whatever the locals throw at you, good, bad, or otherwise.

3) do nothing: you're out of their organization any way they choose to look at it.

It constitutes proof that they received your written notice of resignation. Legally you ceased to be a member at the moment they received written notice from you (e-mail in this case). If they try to harass you later, it's illegal because you have already withdrawn your consent to be disciplined by the church. In other words, if they try to discipline you, you can sue, and you will have letter #1 and the postmarked envelope as proof.

Yes.

If they agreed to send a return receipt, that would constitute proof of receipt even before they mail out the letter and "invitation" pamphlet.

Mr. Stake President,

I am no longer a member of your church. I have resigned. Do not contact me, but kindly process your paper work promptly.

Thank you.
Elphaba