BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the New Anchorage Alaska Temple; Closure Announced for Current Anchroage Alaska Temple

Hello again, everyone! An unexpected temple announcement came down the pike today: opening arrangements for the new Anchorage Alaska Temple, along with a closure for the current Anchorage Alaska Temple, which will close for demolition on March 22, 2027. As a reminder, the new Anchorage temple is being built where the former chapel stood, so the plan is for a new chapel to be built where the current temple sits once the existing structure is razed. The Church will want to be able to dedicate the new meetinghouse when the new temple is dedicated, so closing the existing structure a couple of months before the new temple is dedicated will allow the Church to do that.

That brings us to the opening arrangements for the new Anchorage Alaska Temple: the new temple's media day will occur on Monday, May 10, 2027, with invited guests touring the temple the next couple of days. The public open house will occur between Thursday, May 13, and Saturday, May 29, 2027. The new Anchorage Alaska Temple and the adjacent chapel will be dedicated (not rededicated) on Sunday, June 13, 2027. The session will be broadcast to all units in the temple district. The presiding official will be named closer to the time, making it likely that a member of the First Presidency or a senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside thereover.

This marks a change from the Church's original plan to dedicate the new temple, then raze the existing structure and build and dedicate the meetinghouse. But it is a welcome change that makes sense when outlined as done herein. I will confess I was not expecting this temple's opening arrangements to be announced this soon, nor did I anticipate that the first temple event announced for 2027 would be this rededication. But it is welcome news nonetheless.

With no other temple news announced this week, hopefully next week will bring opening arrangements for the Pago Pago American Samoa, Smithfield Utah, or Fort Worth Texas Temples, in addition to one or two more temple groundbreakings. I suspect we will continue to see announcements every Monday this month. I invite you all to stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. In the meantime, that does it for now. 

All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. If you liked what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added posts and comments, please subscribe to receive the applicable updates. 

Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Dedication Set for the Torreon Mexico Temple; Groundbreaking Set for the Colorado Springs Colorado Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, the major temple construction announcement from the First Presidency set the opening arrangements for the Torreón Mexico Temple and the groundbreaking arrangements for the Colorado Springs Colorado Temple. Here are the details: We start with the Torreon Mexico Temple, which will have a media day on Monday, October 19, with invited guest tours the following two days.

The public will be invited to tour the temple between Thursday, October 22, and Saturday, November 7, excluding the Sundays of October 25 and November 1. The temple dedication will follow on Sunday, November 22, under the presiding direction of Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That will be the same date as the previously announced dedication of the Modesto California Temple. By that date, daylight saving time will have ended, so Torreon will then be 1 hour ahead of Modesto, so if the two dedications are held at 10:00 AM, Torreon will be the first of the two to be dedicated.

The dedication announcement follows the temple's April 2021 announcement, with the site location confirmed in mid-September 2021 (the exterior rendering was simultaneously released on that same date) and the groundbreaking announcement in mid-October 2022, with the groundbreaking subsequently occurring in mid-December of that same year. I am grateful we got news of this temple dedication.

We now turn to the Colorado Springs Colorado Temple groundbreaking, which will be held on Saturday, September 12, under the direction of Elder Karl D. Hirst of the United States Central Area Presidency. The groundbreaking announcement follows the temple's October 2023 announcement by President Nelson, with the site location confirmed in early November 2024 and the release of its' exterior rendering occuring in early May 2025. I am grateful that my theory of other groundbreakings between Couer d'Alene Idaho and Maceio Brazil has proven correct. There are now 

In view of these announcements, I have updated my documents showing apostolic temple dedications under President Oaks' prophetic administration and my side-by-side comparison for groundbreakings in 2025 vs. 2026. I still think at least a couple other groundbreakings could be set to occur between Colorado Springs Colorado and Maceio Brazil, or that perhaps one more could be set between Couer d'Alene and Colorado Springs, but time will tell on that.

I am grateful we got these two announcements. While I was doing the research to prepare the full post covering this news, the Church News covered both the Torreon Mexico dedication and the Colorado Springs Colorado groundbreaking. I still think the Church will set dedications for a few more temples to occur before the end of this year, and I have a feeling that additional groundbreakings are coming down the pike as well.

I invite you all to stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines.

I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. If you liked what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added posts and comments, please subscribe to receive the applicable updates. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Data

Hello again, everyone! It has been a tradition on this blog for me to provide updates on apostolic data roughly every 7 weeks. Having last done so on Sunday, june 7, it is time to publish the newest such data. As with every two-part update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 18 Church Presidents (including our current prophet, President Dallin H. Oaks), in addition to updated information on the tenure lengths for each of the 30 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (including current Quorum President, Henry B. Eyring). 

The first document likewise notes information on the tenure length rankings for three sets of apostolic groups: the longest-serving First Presidencies (with the current First Presidency not even making that list for the next 6 years), the longest-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). The tenure clock on the current groups (the Quorum of the Twelve and the 15 apostles overall) reset when Elder Gilbert was ordained.

Meanwhile, the second part of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the same data for the combined First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in addition to the average ages of each group, plus apostolic nonagenarians (with 2 of the current 15 apostles being on that list), and a final table showing the remaining time between today and when each of the other 13 apostles will become nonagenarians and join that list.

With these updates being published every 7 weeks, the next one will be provided here on Sunday, September 13. Hopefully, this post is of interest to you all. Again, I offer an open invitation to anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. Stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. 

In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. If you liked what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added posts and comments, please subscribe to receive the applicable updates.

Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.