Hello again, everyone! The First Presidency just announced the next major temple construction milestones, and they are somewhat significant in that we got two dedications (Knoxville Tennessee and Smitithfield Utah) and two more temple groundbreakings (La Paz Bolivia and Cincinnati Ohio). There's a lot to get into, so let's get right into the details!
We start in Knoxville, where a media day will be held on Monday, January 25, 2027, with VIP/guestt tours the following day. The public open house will run from Wednesday, January 27-Saturday February 13 (excluding the Sundays of January 31 and February 7). The temple dedication will follow on Sunday, March 7, 2027, under the direction of Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This announcement follows the temple's April 2022 announcement, its late October 2022 site announcement, the mid-December 2022 release of the exterior rendering, and its late January 2024 groundbreaking.
As for Smithfield, the media day will take place on Monday, February 22, 2027, with invited guests touring the temple the next couple of days. The public open house will run from Thursday, February 25, through Saturday, March 27, 2027. The temple dedication will take place on Sunday, April 18, 2027, under the presiding direction of Elder Quentin L. Cook, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This dedication announcement follows the temple's original announcement in April 2021, the site announcement 5 months later, and the rendering released two months after that.
Both of these temple dedications are occurring later than I thought they would, but I'm glad for these announcements in any case. It's also worth noting that, with the Smithfield Utah Temple dedication set, the Church may release the Logan Utah Temple renovation plans at some point following the April 2027 General Conference. And with the Fort Worth dedication in January, Knoxville in March, and Smithfield in April, hopefully, a couple of other dedications might fill in the gaps between the set dedications. It'll be interesting to see how all of that works out.
Let's move on to the groundbreakings: Elder Juan Pabo Villar, South America Northwest Area President, will preside at the groundbreaking for the La Paz Bolivia Temple on Saturday, November 21, 2026. That groundbreaking follows the temple's October 2021 announcement, the late August 2023 site announcement, and its mid-June 2022 groundbreaking. Meanwhile, ground will be broken for the Cincinnati Ohio Temple on Saturday, November 7, 2026, under the direction of Elder Alan T. Phillips of the United States Northeast Area Presidency.
In light of these updates, I have updated my documents showing current apostolic temple dedications/rededications and a side-by-side comparison of temple groundbreakings this year vs. last year. As the latter document shows, we have now officially surpassed the number of temple groundbreakings we saw last year, and, as the document shows, it is 21 (this year) vs. 20 (last year). I still think we might see additional temple groundbreakings this year.
We've still got one Saturday in November and two or three Saturdays in December on which groundbreakings could be set to occur. As to which or how many other temples might still have ground broken this year, that's harder to say. I will have some ideas about that that I will share with my end-of-third-quarter 2026 report.
The only other thing to note is that I don't know how soon we might get other temple dedications set. Not for at least a month, I'd wager. But I do think that we can continue to expect these 2:00 PM MDT announcements at least until the time change in November. I appreciate the chance to share these thoughts with you all.
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.
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