I dont know where to post this but I just want to blow off some steam, i was baptised as a JW in February 1994, in September of last year I was disfellowshipped, this was for allowing my partner from America to come to live in my house, they said we were committing fornication, we werent. my disfellowshipping occured just 1 week prior to my marriage, and despite breaking my heart and sobbing to the elders they remained convinced of our fornication and disfellowshipped me. I appealled and had to endure 2 hours of interrogation by 6 elders, again my heart was breaking, again they disfellowshipped. Since then my husband met someone else online and left me to go and live with her. I also have met someone else, a Catholic man who i love very much. He and I want to marry, and the priest of our Catholic church said that He will arrange an annulment with the bishop as my husband was very violent towards me and the marriage was civil ceremony not before God. My new partner is an American, and I am English, I am living in His apartment in California but again both of us are deeply religious and are abstaning from any fornication. American law states that I must go home to England every 90 days, but Immigration in America said that once we are married I stay and apply for a permanent visa. The wedding is planned for April 2006 to allow time for the Annulment to go through and my conversion to the Catholic faith, a process that takes 1 year ending at Easter vigil next year. To follow the RCIA faith formation course I have to provide proof that at some point in my life I have undergone christian baptism. the JWs do not give a certificate of baptism so I asked the Elders in my old congregation to write me a letter confirming that I had undergone water baptism. They refused point blank, said there are legal issues and it couldnt be done.
The issue is this, to undergo counselling for engaged couples and to arrange a marriage I have to be catholic. To undergo fresh baptism takes 2 years not 1. So the wedding is delayed 1 year. This means that I will have to pay for airline tickets to England for an extra year, to comply with visa regulations. It also means I cant work in the USA. My partner is at school studying to be a Chiropractor, he qualifies in 2 years, around the time of our Marriage. The plan is to open his own business with me as office manager, receptionist and book keeper. But if the wedding is delayed a year, then I cant work in the USA for another year and he will have to employ an outsider to do the job. that will cost in excess of $15,000 for a year plus 4 return airfares bump the price up to nearly $20,000 just because the Jehovahs Witnesses will not write a letter stating I was baptised.
Can anyone advise me on how I can get around the stubborn Elders in my old congregation and get the letter that proves I have been baptised so all can proceed smoothly?