Hello again, everyone! As I promised to do so, I have been working on researching, editing, and revising my list of future temple locations. While getting that together, I discovered some things about how the temple announcement boom that occurred beginning with this announcement from President Hinckley about how the number of operating temples would more than double in a few years compares with what is potentially going to happen based on Elder Wilson's statement last April about the 80 potential temple locations that may subsequently have an official announcement within the 15 years following that statement. What I have put together below goes into detail on my findings about that thought.
Two things have occurred within the last year that will affect temple announcements going forward. First, President Monson, who for the final 3 years of his presidency (2015-2017) gave shorter addresses, habitually announced temples during his Sunday Morning remarks. If he had continued to live through this General Conference, any new temples would have been announced, with his consent, by one of his counselors. In view of President Nelson now being the Church President, it seems clear that he will make new temple announcements himself, and for this General Conference, that seems most likely to occur during the Sunday Morning Session, which, if recent tradition holds, will be President Nelson’s first General Conference address as President of the Church to the entire membership.
Second, Elder Larry Y. Wilson stated in late April 2017 (around a month after President Monson announced 5 new temples in General Conference) that the Church was actively considering 80 potential temple locations for a future announcement within the following 15 years. That statement was made almost a year ago, and no new temples have been announced since that time. This means that, whether or not each one of those 80 goes on to be officially announced within that time, there are slightly more than 14 years remaining in which to do so, which means, if Elder Wilson’s statement is anywhere close to being literally taken, 5 or 6 temples would need to be announced per year, which could result in temples being announced in every General Conference, and with a few others here and there in between those times.
The task therefore for me was to try and determine, of the many locations that I considered, which should be on my list for the near future and which might occur at some point, but perhaps not as immediately. For that purpose, I posted in-depth analysis of such prospects on my blog and requested feedback. Based on what was said in the course of doing that series of posts, I made changes, revisions, and substitutions. Since the conclusion of those conversations, I have done more research and have made a few additional adjustments.
The list as it now stands represents my best researched thoughts, based on personally-gathered data and (where applicable) insight from those who have commented on those prospects. It should also be mentioned that I will be organizing the list a little differently this time around as well. As I considered how best to do so, it seemed advisable to group this list first by general world area (which corresponds to the regions that make up the Third-Eighth Quorums of the Seventy), then by likelihood within that area. I am also providing endnotes to set the context for any pertinent information about either the regions or specific locations, which I hope will be illustrative.
With all of that noted, while it may be impossible to anticipate every potential location that may get a temple, or how imminently that might occur, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is hastening His work in His time, is very much aware of the needs of the members of His Church, and knows exactly when, in what locations, and how imminently temples are needed anywhere, and He reveals such locations at the right time through His prophet. Exactly 20 years ago this conference,
President Gordon B. Hinckley announced to the Church his smaller temple design, and the goal to more than double the number of temples in a few short years. There were 51 operating temples at the time that announcement was made, and in the 20 years since, that number has more than tripled to 159, a total increase of 108 temples, or roughly 5.4 per year.
And of those 108 (if my research and subsequent calculations are correct), around 76 were both announced and completed within those 20 years. With that in mind, it is not a stretch of logic to believe that Elder Wilson’s statement will likely prove correct and justified, and that around 80 (if not exactly that or more than that) could easily be announced in the next 14 years. That is great to think about.
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.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Some Additional Observations About Future Temples
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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Actually at Oct 1997 conference, President Hinkley announced the smaller temple design to bring temples to more remote areas. He announced five temples at that time. Thee small and 2 traditional size. Six months later he made an unprecedented announced to accelerate the number of temples with an aggressive building program. We built almost 32 more temples in two years. It usually takes longer than that just to break ground on one temple.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that clarification to what I said above, Chris! The intriguing thing about that is that article I was looking at last night (covering the 20th anniversary of the smaller temple design debut) was published on the Church's website in October last year. So on that point you would be correct. With that said, it wasn't until the following April (which will be 20 years ago this conference) that President Hinckley surprised the Church with the news that he was looking to increase the number of operating temples to 100 by the year 2000.
DeleteMy point was more to illustrate the idea that, whether or not every one of the 80 potential locations Elder Wilson referenced in late April last year are announced within the 15 years from the time he made that statement, the idea of 80 temples during that time (which is now approaching 14 years) is not so unreasonable. In fact, if my initial research is correct, the number of temples announced in the 20 years since that April 1998 address by President Hinckley is only slightly lower than 80, so it is not a stretch by any means to believe that the Church could make that happen, as it is only slightly more ambitious than what has occurred between 1998 and now.
And it is likewise interesting to consider that Elder Wilson made that statement last year after President Monson announced the 5 new temples in General Conference, but about a month or so before the Church announced that President Monson would no longer be taking an active role in Church leadership. Because of that, it may have been difficult to obtain his approval for any temple announcements within the last 8 months of his life, which could be why no other temples were announced in October of last year. Since President Nelson is, by comparison, much more energetic and vigorous, even though he is almost three years older, I would anticipate that between now and the April General Conference, he will be seeking information about potential future locations for temples and ascertaining which ones the Lord wants him to announce in the near future.
The one unknown factor in all of this is whether or not it is reasonable to believe that he will announced the first temples of his presidency during his first General Conference as Church President. While President Monson did not announce any in his first General Conference, he made three such announcements within two months after that conference. It was interesting to me to learn that the amount of time between President Monson’s ordination and the first temple announcements of his presidency was only a few days longer than the time that will have passed between President Nelson’s ordination and his first General Conference as Church president. When we add that fact to the knowledge that President Nelson is more vigorous and has hit the ground running, I not only think it is possible that new temples will be announced in April, but that it is highly likely. You can catch coverage of all of that here as it occurs. In the meantime, it is my hope that I will be able to pass along later today an updated version of the most likely temple locations that I have been revising and working on for the last little while. Stay tuned for that, and thanks, as always, for commenting, Chris.