Hello again, everyone! After a few day's hiatus to post Church and temple news that has crossed my radar in recent days, I am in the preliminary stages of putting together my thoughts about temple prospects for each of the Church's areas in North America. Before I share anything in that regard, I wanted to note that because the boundary lines of the North American areas of the Church are drawn the way they are, we have many states in the US and provinces and territories in Canada where the majority of such regions may fall under one area, while smaller portions of those regions may fall under another. Because of that, the temple possibilities I see for these areas will be listed according to the area in which most of these states, provinces and territories fall, even if the temple location might be in a different area of the Church. Hope that makes sense.
I am using this post to share some thoughts on a distinct part of North America that I do not see getting any additional temples anytime soon. The area of which I speak is the territories that comprise Canada. In preparing to share my thoughts on North America, I did some research into Canada. And that research seems indicative that the temple district that are now (or in the case of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, will be) in place in that region seem to be more than enough for Canada's needs for the moment.
The temple districts are fairly small and very manageable with their current sizes, and, from my study, It also seems to me that the Church is well stocked on temples that are scattered through Canada and and serve parts of the United States in which they border. I don't see anywhere the Church is established in Canada that is not within an easy distance of a temple. That said, I freely admit that my study is far from perfect. Always has been and always will be, so if there is anything I have overlooked, please let me know.
With all of that said, I am looking forward to going into detail on the current and potential future temple districts within the North American areas of the Church. The United States is one of many places where my list of possibilities has shrunk, then expanded, then shrunk, then expanded again. Having been encouraged to expand my net of US temple possibilities (while at the same time keeping in mind that, except in the Mormon corridor of Idaho, Arizona, and Utah (though it technically also includes Nevada and the regions of California comprising San Bernardino), the US in general is in a period of stagnated growth). With all of that in mind, I will hopefully be able to take some time between now and the Christmas holidays to cover North American temple possibilities.
I am currently dealing with a minor illness that may slow me down somewhat, but if nothing else, I will do my level best to be sure and complete the North America posts before the end of the year. It all depends on what happens between now and then and how much time and energy I can devote to such posts. That said, it has touched me how interested you, my readers, seem to be in the posts about potential future temple locations. That is clearly a subject close to many hearts, and I am grateful for the wonderful feedback I have received on the posts I have done in this series so far.
That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
A Preliminary Word on the North America Areas of the Church
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.
I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.
And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.
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14 US states don't have temple. But a few of them have temples close to the state's border. The next states I think will get thier first temples could be Virgina and Arkansas. Vermont has one stake but it could be feasible to have a historic site temple built next to the Joseph Smith birthplace monument like was done in Nouvoo and Winter Quarters. The state has one stake, but we have built other temples with one stake such as Winepeg Manitoba and a few others.
ReplyDeleteThe states with no temples are Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island. I hope more of them get thier first temple in the coming years. I have high hopes for more temple worldwide as well. Some places have low income where travel is difficult and they deserve temples closer to home.
Thanks for your comment, Chris! I appreciate hearing from you. There are many different elements that determine the how, when, and where of temples. As such, there are quite a few possibilities that the Church may be looking into. While I use the metrics of the size of current temple districts and have put on my personal list several that make sense in view of President Monson's stated goal and intention to have every member within 200 miles of a temple. And there are several of those that, as "hot spots" could be very likely to get a temple. And that's just with the factors I am using. When factoring in things that other people may use to determine their top picks, there are a wide variety of locations that could get a temple and likely need them. The states within the United States have several possibilities that I have seen, not just in terms of the distance and size of current temple districts, but also for a few other reasons. As I go over the composition of the current temple districts in each area, I will also share at various intervals some thoughts on the 14 total locations in the United States that I have felt could use a temple. I will be putting some work in later on today on my posts about the North America Central Area, its current districts, and the future temple possibilities I see there. Stay tuned for that. and thanks, as always, for taking time to comment, Chris!
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