Updated Projections for When Future Temple-related Events Might Be Announced and Scheduled to Take Place

Given some things I have learned within just the last 8 hours or so regarding temple developments, I have felt it necessary to once again revisit my best-guess estimates for the timetable by which future temple-related events might be announced and take place. I don’t want to be long-winded, so I will try to move as quickly as possible. As with other recent updates of this sort that I have done, please bear in mind that I will not be restating what has developed in terms of temple construction progress milestones. Those have been explored in other posts I have done today.

That said, as you are all aware, the next temple-related events will be the already scheduled groundbreakings in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and Arequipa Peru on March 4. The Rio groundbreaking, over which Elder Claudio R. M. Costa (Brazil Area President) will preside, is scheduled for 10:00 AM Brazilian time, which is 5:00 AM MST. Elder Carlos A. Godoy, who presides over the South America Northwest Area of the Church, will preside at the groundbreaking in Arequipa.

As before mentioned, the last time two groundbreaking were held on the same day was October 17, 2015, when we had those events in Concepcion Chile and Tucson Arizona. It is interesting to note that the Tucson temple will be dedicated this year, and Concepcion next year. It is also interesting to contemplate how different temples in different parts of the world take different lengths of time to complete for a variety of reasons. It is wonderful to consider that there has not even been a year and a half since the last time two temples had a groundbreaking on the same day. And we might see several more instances like that in the future.

I could also see the Church making a site announcement and subsequently holding a groundbreaking for the temple in Harare Zimbabwe sometime before the dedication of the Paris France temple on May 21. In addition to that dedication, we also have the rededication on June 4 for the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. It will be amazing to see those events happen. As I have previously stated, I am especially excited to see the dedication of France’s first temple.

And in speaking in terms of future temple-related events, we cannot forget the other already scheduled dedications in Tucson Arizona on August 13, in Meridian Idaho on Sunday November 19, and in Cedar City Utah on December 10.

That brings us to temples that might be dedicated next year. Jordan River, Rome, Kinshasa, and Freiberg are the first four we will likely see in 2018. When might those happen? I am more convinced than ever that we could see an official announcement for these milestones within the latter part of this year. The Jordan River Utah Temple will likely be rededicated in late January or early February. Kinshasa could be next, in late February or early March. We could see the rededication in Freiberg taking place in late March or within the first two weeks following General Conference weekend in April. And I could see the Rome dedication taking place in either late April or early May. I would love to be proven wrong in this regard, and to find out that the Rome dedication will precede any of the others. It does seem to be on track to be the first one dedicated, but I have seen enough delays there to convince me that the Rome Temple might not be dedicated any sooner than I have suggested here.

Between all of these things, we will have at least one temple commence the renovation process. The Oakland California Temple will be closed in February 2018 (I believe as of the very beginning of the month) for a complete overhaul. The renovation is expected to last at least a year. I will speak more about my estimate for when that will be completed later on.

In the meantime, the Barranquilla Colombia Temple, the next one that might be completed, could have a dedication announcement by sometime in March or April, with the dedication itself perhaps taking place in June. If that is not possible, it is very likely that the open house will finish in June and that the actual dedication might take place in early August, after the General Authorities have their traditional July recess. This is especially likely given the precedent that was set in this regard with the Tucson Arizona Temple open house and dedication that was announced last month.

I could see the temples in Concepcion and Durban being finished by the time fall starts in 2018. The dedications themselves could take place in early-to-mid November (Concepcion) and early December (for Durban).

I could see the Winnipeg temple (which will likely have its construction commence in earnest in April or May of this year; the only thing delaying progress now is a really bad Canadian winter) having a dedication announced late next year, with the actual event taking place in late March 2019.

We could also see the Fortaleza Brazil and Lisbon Portugal temples both having their construction completed by early spring of 2019, with their dedications to follow in May (Fortaleza) and June (Lisbon).

In the meantime, depending on what develops in terms of the construction of the construction in Rio, we could see that announcement in late spring of 2019, with the dedication to follow in early August. Given what happened with the three temple dedications announced for later this year, we could see simultaneous announcements for late August or early September (for both the dedication Arequipa and Oakland) and late November or early December (for Harare). Unless there is a drastic change, this seems to be a pretty safe timetable.

What these changes mean, as I have stated before, is that the Church will add 4 new operating temples and have one rededication by the end of 2017, and five other dedications and the remaining two renovations completed in 2018. In 2019, we could see 5 dedications and at least 1 rededication. I am not going to rule out the possibility of more renovations being announced this year and being completed by 2019 as well. That is not so cut and dried as it originally seemed. I welcome any thoughts about other potentially good candidates for renovations.

The so-called backlog that once existed has long-since been done away with, raising the likelihood of more temples being announced in the next year or so. And I have given my thoughts and feelings about the most likely candidates for such announcements. I may repost my list of near-future possibilities soon if there is enough demand for it.

As for future groundbreakings, they 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 and Arequipa, things happened very quickly there. As I have before observed as well, if construction begins in Harare anytime soon, it would make that temple historically significant in so very many ways.

The next groundbreaking that is most likely to take place, in my opinion, will be for the first Haitian temple in Port-au-Prince, and that might happen by fall of this year. I have no reason to back this up. The same could hold true for the temple in Bangkok Thailand.

We might see Lima Peru’s second temple and the first temple in the Ivory Coast have groundbreakings next year. The same might be true for the temples in Quito Ecuador and Belem Brazil.

Without knowing how long the currently reported delays in Urdaneta might last, but they might be cleared up sufficiently by 2019, by which time several other temples could be announced in General Conference, sites identified, and groundbreakings held as well.

In these projections, I am always open to suggestion, clarification, and correction. Thanks for taking time to read this post. I look forward to hearing of all future temple-related developments, and I will do my level best to report on such things as I hear of them. Thank you!