Hello. Given new information that has come to light recently, I
have felt it would be appropriate to revisit my projects for when future
temple-related events might be announced and take place. Though my last such
update was only 12 days ago, between all that has happened on this front, it
seems like a great idea.
As mentioned, the next temple-related event will be the announced
groundbreaking in Rio de Janeiro Brazil on March 4. That groundbreaking will be
done by Elder Claudio R. M. Costa, the most senior General Authority Seventy
who has served for almost six years as president of the Church’s Brazil Area. That
said, we may see the timeframe for the Rio temple completion follow roughly the
same timetable by which the Winnipeg Temple is being built. They do seem to be
roughly the same size. I will speak more on the potential completion date for
this temple a little later.
I am equally certain that we could also see a groundbreaking for the
Arequipa Peru temple taking place before the dedication of the Paris France
Temple on May 20. We might also have a site announcement and subsequently a
groundbreaking announced and done before too much longer as well. I will go
into more specifics on this later.
In addition to the Paris France dedication on May 20, we also have
the rededication on June 4 for the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. It will be amazing
to see those events happen. I am especially excited for the Paris temple
dedication for the reasons I have before explained: my lifelong love of the
French language, and my elation at being able to study it for three years in
high school.
I had projected that a dedication for the Tucson Arizona temple
might take place in early August. As we all know, that has been scheduled for the
second Sunday in August, the 13 to be exact. So that is exciting. And, as we
know, the scheduled open house conclusion proceeds the actual dedication by
about two months, so that it does not in any way disrupt the annual July recess
of the Church leadership.
It is interesting to note that while everyone had seemed to
indicate that the announced dedications in Meridian and Cedar City were most
likely to happen by early fall of this year, which is still late in the year.
However, we were all pleasantly surprised, I am sure, to find that the Meridian
dedication is being scheduled for Sunday November 19, the Sunday before
Thanksgiving. In the meantime, the Cedar City Utah dedication has been slated
to take place one week following the day Elder Holland will celebrate his 77th
birthday.
Now that we have confirmation that the Jordan River Utah Temple
renovation process will not be completed until next year, and since we have
three temples in addition to that (Rome Italy, Kinshasa DR Congo, and Freiberg
Germany), I think it is safe to assume that we might hear of the open house and
dedication dates for these temples before the end of this year. As to the
actual dedications, I will say that I think we could see Jordan River dedicated
in mid-January, with the Rome and Kinshasa dedications to follow in late
February and early March respectively, and the rededication in Freiberg to take
place in late March or within the first two weeks following General Conference
weekend in April.
In the meantime, we might hear of the dedication for the temple in
Concepcion within the first half of 2018, with the dedication itself to follow
sometime in August. Given the past precedent we have of the way the open house for
the Tucson Arizona temple has been scheduled to end just prior to the beginning
of the July recess for the General Authorities, I could definitely see that
happening again for the Concepcion temple.
The construction of the Durban South Africa Temple still seems to
be on schedule. I feel confident that the temple will be completed within a
similar time frame to that which is almost certain for Concepcion and Rome,
with an announcement for the dedication made within the first half of 2018, and
the dedication actually scheduled for either late August or early September.
The temple in Winnipeg has yet to progress beyond the
groundbreaking. However, given its size (very small), it seems that
construction might be completed by around August 2018, with the dedication
taking place in either late November or else early December 2018. It wouldn’t
surprise me if a similar timeline held true for the temple in Barranquilla
Colombia, which is further along in terms of construction, but will be a much
larger edifice.
In the meantime, for the first time in doing such predictions, I
feel bold enough to project completion dates for the two temples anticipated to
be completed sometime around 2019. Despite the five-year span between the
groundbreaking and the actual commencement of construction in Fortaleza Brazil,
that construction is progressing rapidly. I reiterate my feelings that
construction will be completed there within the early months of 2019, with the
actual dedication taking place in either April or perhaps possibly May.
The Lisbon Portugal Temple is at a point that solidifies my belief
that a similar time frame may be very likely to prevail as that which I have
proposed above for the Fortaleza temple. It would not surprise me if these two
traded spots a couple of times in terms of future completion. But right now, it
seems safe to say that.
Given what I have been able to find out about the temple that will
be built in Rio starting in the next month and a half, and because of its
design, it appears to be a smaller temple that may also be built within 20
months of its groundbreaking. If we add 20 months to March 2017, we arrive at
the calculation that the temple in Rio could have construction completed by
November of next year, and seeing as how the completion of a temple precedes
its dedication by several months, I will say it is still very safe to assume
that the temple in Rio might be dedicated somewhere around or before the same
time period as the temple now being worked on in Fortaleza.
If the temple in Arequipa Peru also has a groundbreaking and if
the site announcement and subsequent groundbreaking for Harare takes place within
the first six months of 2017, it would not surprise me at all if both of those
temples were completed and had a dedication done during 2019, though that would
likely be during the fall and winter months of that year.
In the meantime, as I have stated before, the Church will add 4
new operating temples and have one
rededication by the end of 2017, and six more new temples and two renovations
completed in 2018. It is not likely that the Church will run out of temples to
renovate anytime soon. If any of you have any theories regarding this subject,
please let me know. And it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if some of the
more recent temples were also scheduled for renovation.
One thing is certain: Any backlog that might have previously
existed is now increases the likelihood that many more temples could be
announced within the next two years. The exact number of those announcements
remains to be seen, though I have given my thoughts regarding the most likely
and most imminent picks.
Future groundbreakings may be more unpredictable to anticipate
than I originally thought. I look at the groundbreaking in Winnipeg, and it
happened much faster than usual. And with the way things unfolded in Rio, any
delays that existed were cleared up very quickly.
That said, given what I have observed, in addition to the
already-scheduled groundbreaking in Rio and the possibility that we might soon
hear of a groundbreaking in Arequipa and also of a site announcement and
groundbreaking in Harare, I will say that I could see the next groundbreaking
taking place for the first Haitian temple in Port-au-Prince. I have no reason
to back this up. It’s just how I feel, and we could have the site announcement
and the groundbreaking by or before the end of this year.
A groundbreaking for Bangkok could happen by the beginning of
2018. The same timetable could prevail for the Abidjan temple. Who knows how
long the currently reported delays in Urdaneta might last. I might venture to
say that the remaining temples (the three others announced last year) might
well have a groundbreaking by or before 2019.
I’m also very sure that many more temples could be announced
within the next couple of years and have construction started as the Lord
permits. I am very much looking forward to future events.
I continue to very much appreciate the
feedback I get on things I post about here. Any and all comments on this new
post are welcome. I look forward to the ongoing discussion of this important
subject. Thanks!
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/arequipa-peru-temple-groundbreaking-date?__prclt=TeeTQEty
ReplyDeleteSame day as the Rio Temple!!!
Exciting day for Peru. Now the only temple in a serious backlog is the Urdanetta Phipines Temple. The other temples awaiting a groundbreaking are less than two years old. I hope to see several of them having groundbreakings soon or at least by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you both for those excellent comments. I have done two blog posts as a direct result of this wonderful news. Next, if I have time tonight, I will be working on once again revising and revisiting this post here as a new post. This is especially needed and necessary given the changes we have seen in the order and near likelihood of completion for temples now under construction. Stay tuned for that. As far as other temples, it is not uncommon to have a few that experience severe delays spanning several years. So the almost seven years we have seen spanning the time between the announcement of the Urdaneta temple and now. What is uncommon and unheard of is to have only one temple that has been delayed that long, and to consider that all others have been announced within the last two years. The likelihood of other temples being announced in General Conference around two months from now is ever steadily increasing. I am doing my level best to stay informed on all of these ongoing nad continuing developments, and I hope to be able to continue to focus on the developments of the future as fully and quickly as I can. Thanks to you both.
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