Temple Site Possibilities: Philippines Area

Hello again, everyone! While I still welcome any feedback any of you have about anything I have posted about the current and potential future temples in the areas of the Church I have already covered (including and especially the six-part series within that series about the current and potential future temples that might be  announced within the Pacific Area), since I have time to do so, and since it will be the easiest of all the areas of the Church which I already have or will yet discuss, I wanted to take some time and share some observations on the Philippines Area, including a discussion of the four temples in various stages within those areas, and the two possible prospects which I have on my list for the near future. And that, barring anything unexpected, can all be done in one post.

As some of you may be aware, the Philippines Area includes not only the Philippines, but the US owned Northern Mariana Islands. In addition to having two operating temples (in Manila and Cebu City), there are two others that have been announced.

The temple anticipated to serve the Saints in Urdaneta and the surrounding regions was announced just over 7 years ago, during the October 2010 General Conference. Between having to change both the site location and also potentially the temple design and plan, this temple has had the members anxiously waiting for news. I heard through the grapevine that there is a possibility that the Urdaneta Temple will have a site announcement and groundbreaking in the early months of next year.

In the meantime, as we found out in April, the Church has a second temple planned to serve the Saints in the Greater Manila area, and its site (located in the Alabang area of Muntinlupa City) has already been confirmed and inspected by Church engineers. We may or may not see an official name announced and a groundbreaking scheduled for this temple at some point next year, or that may be delayed until the year following.

With that overview out of the way, I wanted to note next that, in addition to those 4 temples, the Church in the Philippines also has 21 missions, 101 stakes and 74 districts, which break down further into 645 wards and 573 branches, for a whopping total of 1,218 congregations.

If we divide that by two, then each currently operating temple serves 609 congregations, which is a lot for just two of them. When the Urdaneta and second Manila temples are dedicated, that will cut that average in half again, to 304.5 congregations. And even that is somewhat overwhelming for a single temple district. That is why I see a couple of other possible additional locations in the near future for the Philippines.

I wanted to move on to discuss first the history of the two temples currently serving this area, then to talk about the current districts, and conclude with my thoughts on how soon we might see other temples announced for this area, and where those might be built.

The temple in Manila was dedicated in the three day period spanning September 25-27, 1984, and was another dedicated by President Hinckley during the years he was the only fully functioning member of the First Presidency under President Kimball's leadership. Its' district includes 67 stakes and 43 districts, which means that this temple district is the largest of the two. And it appears that both the second Manila and Urdaneta Philippines temples will break up that district a bit.

Some stakes within the Cebu City Philippines Temple district may also be pulled away when the other two temples are dedicated. That temple, which was dedicated on June 13, 2010, by President Thomas S. Monson, has a very large district as well, with 36 stakes and 34 districts.

So we can see that the two temples that have been announced additionally are greatly needed. We also know that the Urdaneta Temple is anticipated to be a closer option for those Saints in the Luzon Island area, and that the second Manila Temple will further potentially split the current two and the potential Urdaneta district as well. Admittedly, I do not have a good sense of geography, so I am not sure how all that might play out.

In the meantime, the potential temples I see in the near future for this area might be built in either Cagayan del Oro, or Davao, and I would anticipate a temple in both locations at some point. Future prospects (which are further away) may be the areas covered by the stakes in Bacolod and Quezon City. If I had to narrow that down, I would give my guess that Quezon City and Davao will get temples first. I have had, at different times, either one or the other of them.

But these are just my own thoughts. Be sure to let me know yours in the comments below. That does it for this post. 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.