Church begins announcing New Temple Presidents

Hello again to you all. The time of year has come when the Church has started to announce the callings of new temple presidents. In addition to the Calgary Alberta Temple, which had a change in president earlier this year for reasons not made public, and three of the four temples that will be dedicated later this year (as the first president of the Paris France Temple was called during the summer of last year), new presidents have been called so far for 23 temples.

I could also see presidents being called for as many as 12 other operating temples. There are three others which will probably be dedicated in the early months of next year that might also have their first presidents announced soon. As I observed from my own six-year service as a temple worker, temple presidents generally usually serve for three years or so. So in that regard, there is one temple whose president has been serving for around 5 years, which is a comparatively longer period of time than temple presidents usually serve.

And there are other temples that have had presidents in place for several years as well, but in those cases, their active service time was interrupted at some point by a renovation. I was elated to find that the new president of the Mount Timpanogos Temple has been a counselor in the temple presidency for several years, and also happened to be someone I knew personally who had been in my parents' ward. He is a very good man whom I respect a lot. That was great to learn about. It made my day. I enjoy following the calling of new presidents, and I hope that some of you will find this list of mine to be informative and interesting. If any of you have any feedback, please let me know.

Here is that list of new presidents:

Operating Temples whose president was changed earlier this year:

1.      Calgary Alberta (president changed sometime during March for an undisclosed reason, likely because the previous president died or became incapacitated)

General Note #1: The president of the Tokyo Japan Temple died during his active service in late April of this year. The Church will no doubt be calling one of his counselors as the new president within the next few days to ensure that the work of the temple presidency can move forward uninterrupted.

New Temples whose presidents will begin serving later this year:

1.      Paris France (President announced in 2016; will begin formal service on May 21)

2.      Cedar City Utah (President  announced in March; will begin service on December 10)

3.      Tucson Arizona (President announced in March; will begin formal service on August 13)

4.      Meridian Idaho (President announced in April; will begin formal service in November 19)

General Note #2: The presidents of the Freiberg Germany Temple (closed for renovation in 2014 and rededicated last year) and Idaho Falls Idaho Temple (closed for renovation in 2015 and scheduled for rededication in June of this year) started serving in 2014, months before their closures. If not for that, both would be marking the completion of their third years of active service later this year. As it is, they only actively served for a few months maximum. Therefore, it is possible that the Church may retain him for a couple more years. I could see them calling a new president, but it doesn’t seem probable.

General Note #3: Other operating temples, as has already been announced, will be getting a new president later this year as well, and if those changes take place as they did during my six-year service in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, the new presidents will start their service on the first Monday or Tuesday of November, which fall this year on the 6^th and 7^th. Those temples that will have a new president this year include the following:

1.      Apia Samoa

2.      Logan Utah

3.      Vernal Utah

4.      Toronto Ontario

5.      Snowflake Arizona

6.      Phoenix Arizona

7.      Salt Lake

8.      Bern Switzerland

9.      Quetzaltenango Guatemala

10.  Louisville Kentucky

11.  San Diego California

12.  Mount Timpanogos Utah

13.  Madrid Spain

14.  Bogota Colombia

15.  Edmonton Alberta

16.  Newport Beach California

17.  Adelaide Australia

18.  Kona Hawaii

19.  Caracas Venezuela

20.  Bismarck North Dakota

21.  Mesa Arizona

22.  Columbia South Carolina

23.  Ogden Utah

Temple presidents generally serve for around three years. With that in mind, I feel confident in predicti.ng that the following temples may also have a new president announced:

1.      Asuncion Paraguay

NOTE: The current president has served since 2014, which means that this year would mark time for a charge. But this temple will close for renovation in October, one month before usual changes are made. As a subsequent rededication of this temple is anticipated sometime in 2019, it is more than likely that the Church will hold off on naming a new president until that time.

2.      Baton Rouge Louisiana

3.      Buenos Aires Argentina

4.      NOTE: The current president has been serving since this temple’s rededication in 2012. As that is well beyond the standard 3 years of service, it seems reasonable to assume that there will be such a change this year.

5.      Fort Lauderdale Florida

6.      Guayaquil Ecuador

7.      Los Angeles California

8.      Lubbock Texas

9.      Manila Philippines

10.  Oakland California

11.  San Salvador El Salvador

12.  Washington DC

NOTE: Though this temple president will have marked three years of service later this year, the temple will close for renovation next March. With that in mind, I could see the Church calling a new president this year for a few months prior to that renovation, or holding off on calling anyone until after the renovation is completed sometime during 2020.

Temples that will most likely be dedicated during the early or middle part of next year and might therefore have their first presidents announced at some point during the fall of this year (since the first president of the Paris France Temple had its’ first: president called during summer 2016):

1.      Rome Italy

2.      Kinshasa DR Congo

3.      Barranquilla Colombia

ADDITIONAL NOTES: The current president of the Jordan River Utah Temple has been serving in that capacity since 2014, which would have made his release possible this year, but as it has been undergoing renovations since 2016, he has had less than two years of active service. It is therefore highly probable that he will retain his presidency until sometime during 2020, which would be two years of additional active service following the rededication, for the total standard service period of three years. The current president of the Frankfurt Germany temple has a slightly different but similar situation, as he started serving in 2013, and had roughly two years of active service prior to that temple’s renovation closure in 2015. We could therefore see a change in that temple presidency sometime within the next two years or so. Time will tell. In both cases, the Church might always decide to make those changes sooner, but that seems unlikely. As far as I have been able to ascertain, every other temple president whose active service has been interrupted by a temple renovation has subsequently gone on to fill the remainder of his three-year term.