Hello again, everyone! For those who are not aware of this fact, I wanted to note that, while all temples worldwide are closed on Sunday, most (if not all) of the temples within the United States are also closed on Monday as well. My purpose in mentioning this is to note that, while the closure for the Oakland California Temple was officially set to begin tomorrow, because that temple traditionally is closed on Sunday and Monday, the closure has essentially gone into effect.
As we also know, when this temple's closure was announced roughly a year ago this month, the stated purpose for the renovation is to upgrade electrical and mechanical systems upgraded and for its' finishes and furnishings to be refreshed. According to that news release, the temple is anticipated to be rededicated before the end of the next year. But because this is the first time this temple is being renovated, and because the first renovations for older temples have had a history of taking longer than anticipated, it has, as I have observed, been my feeling that this temple's rededication may only occur during early-to-mid 2020. I will keep my eyes open for more information on this process as it unfolds and will do my best to pass it along as I learn of it.
That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Oakland California Temple Closes for Renovation
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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There are a few temples open on Mondays. I know of at least two. St. George and Provo. Both have the last session start at or before noon. I don't know if there are others open on Mondays.
ReplyDeleteAnother tidbit on church buildings being open Monday evenings. When the high school had parent-teacher conferences, the seminary building was only open until 6. Parent-teacher conferences went until 8 p.m. and so if you wanted to see the Seminary teacher you had to see them before the Building closed do the church regulations for building use on Monday evenings.
DeleteThanks for taking time to comment, Chris! I appreciate you doing so. I probably should have been aware at least about the Provo Temple. With that said, I know from monitoring it that the Oakland Temple is one that is closed on Sundays and Mondays. So it likely closed for its' renovation at the end of the day on Saturday. Thanks again for your comments, Chris!
ReplyDeleteThe Washington DC Temple is open Mondays on 3 day weekends like today (Presidents' Day).
ReplyDeleteNow it is closing soon for two years! And Raleigh is shut down, too.
A central or southern Virginia temple would be handy for many states in 2018 to 2020.
Hello, Eduardo, and thanks for your comment. I was also not aware of the Washington DC Temple being open on Mondays, but that makes sense. It is interesting that the Church would close two temples serving Virginia at the same time. I am more than a little surprised that we have not seen a temple announced for Virginia yet. But I feel confident that could happen in the near future. Obviously, if that occurs, that temple will likely not be built in time to help the Saints in that region deal with the two closures, but I could see that occurring sooner rather than later. Thanks again, Eduardo, for taking time to comment.
ReplyDeleteProvo City Center has had several baptisty openings on three-day weekends, usually ending around 1pm.
DeleteHong Kong is another odd one, the people work 24/7 so there is a meeting set up every day of the week so that if your day off is other than Sunday you can go to sacrament meeting at least, it is usually run by a missionary couple although I do not know how they would rotate presiding officers.
That brings us to that temple. Twice a month they open it for one endowment session on Sunday, it may not even be on the official schedule.
Thank you for those observations, James Anderson. I had not been aware of any of that. I do have some familiarity (minor though it might be) with the Church in China. My mom's brother's family "adopted" two children of a Chinese educator, and because there were regulations in place that somehow had prohibited their parents from sharing the gospel with them, they were both taught by the missionaries and baptized here in the States. With that said, I have no idea how the rotation of presiding officers might work in the case of a meeting every day, but I would imagine that local Church leaders may have made an arrangement with the area presidency to rotate presiding duties among them.
DeleteAnd while endowment sessions on Sunday may not be entirely unheard of (though it is somewhat news to me), I am also somewhat familiar with meetings in the temple on Sunday. During my six years working in the Mount Timapanogos Temple, at least for most of that time, we as temple workers were required to attend training every six months, which gave us an opportunity to receive instruction from a member of the temple presidency and to share ideas with each other about what we found was working well and what could be improved. So as not to disrupt the normal business of temple work during the week, those training sessions were held on Sunday morning.
It is interesting to think and to talk about such things. Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts, James. I appreciate you doing so.
West Virginia is an interesting case, too. Mostly rural and with many social issues that do not work in LDS favor, it may be one the last US states to get a temple. New England states have similar traits. And Wisconsin, except it has many more people.
ReplyDeleteOne stronger growing area of WV is the greater DMV panhandle, I believe in the Martinsburg Stake. There are DC metroplex people with jobs and growth who rent and buy in that part of the Mountaineer State.
Those are great observations, Eduardo. If, as I have projected, a temple is built in Virginia in the near future, it would potentially serve Wet Virginia as well. Wisconsin is another location on which I am keeping my eyes open for a potential future temple, but my research indicates that prospect might possibly be in the more distant future rather than immediately, I continue to work as I can on my revised list of temple possibilities for the near future, which I hope to be able to post on this blog at some point this week. Thanks again for taking time to comment, Eduardo.
ReplyDelete