Hello again, everyone! Breaking temple news was reported earlier this morning, but due to some ongoing health issues, I was not able to report it before now. The First Presidency has announced that the St. George Utah Temple will be closing for extensive renovations on November 4 of this year. These will mostly be seismic and systemic updates, with exterior and interior refreshments being planned. The renovation process is anticipated to conclude for that temple at some point in 2022, and, based on the fact that this is an older temple, I am estimating that process will take almost a full three years to complete, which puts that general estimate at mid-to-late 2022.
The St. George Temple, as I have mentioned previously, holds a place close to my heart. St. George is where my dad grew up, and both his parents and my parents were married there. There was a short period of time in my years growing up where I said that when I got married, I would want it to be in that temple as well, but that was before I had the opportunity to serve at the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, which truly became "my temple" when I met the woman I would later marry there.
The Church News has also produced this article about the anticipated process. I would just add that the St. George Utah Temple was originally privately dedicated in January 1877 by Wilford Woodruff, Erastus Snow, and Brigham Young, then publicly dedicated in April of that same year by Daniel H. Wells, who was a counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency by that time. The temple was subsequently rededicated in November 1975 by Spencer W. Kimball following its' first renovation.
Because it has been previously renovated, I am not ruling out the prospect that this temple could be completed sooner than I have estimated here. But I know that for older temples, even those previously renovated, new processes have almost always taken longer than anticipated, so I have felt it best to be more conservative in my estimates in this regard.
I am also anticipating that this is only the first temple renovation we will hear about this year, and that some of the temples closing for renovation later this year may have that scheduled to occur prior to the closure of the St. George Temple. This whole scenario will be something to watch for sure, and I will bring you word of any developments I hear of ASAP.
That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one oof you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Friday, January 25, 2019
BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: St. George Utah Temple to Close in November
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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Hello again, everyone! In this week's edition of "This Week on Social", we had another brief update on posts from our general leaders. Those featured this week included Elders Quentin L. Cook and Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Sisters Sharon Eubank and Reyna I. Aburto, who serve as First and Second Counselors respectively in the Relief Society General Presidency, and Michelle D. Craig, who serves as First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency. You can read those posts (and a summary of them) below:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-01-25/this-week-on-social-elder-cook-pays-tribute-to-rabbi-sister-eubank-makes-new-video-series-for-missionaries-48877
LDS Charities has donated $1 million to the Red Cross since October, and the following article details that:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2019-01-25/since-october-lds-charities-has-donated-dollar1-million-to-american-red-cross-for-typhoon-relief-heres-who-it-has-helped-48880
And the Church has lost another emeritus General Authority, as Elder William R. Bradford passed away yesterday at the age of 85. Ordinarily, I would feature a tribute post in honor of the life of departed Church leaders, but I am working through some health issues right now, so I hope it will suffice if I share the link to the Church News article, which says most of what I would have said myself, only the article did a better job of the tribute to him than I would have. The article can be found at the following web address:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-01-25/elder-william-r-bradford-emeritus-general-authority-seventy-dies-at-85-48882
And I have conclusively verified that the Bangkok Thailand Temple groundbreaking was held earlier this evening (in Bangkok, it is now Saturday afternoon). So that temple is now in a "construction pending" status, along with the Urdaneta Philippines Temple. Hopefully neither will remain in that status for an extended period of time. Once an article about the groundbreaking becomes available, I will try to share it here unless one of you, my readers, gets there first. And if there is nothing to report over the next 40 hours or so, I will be back with the first apostolic age and tenure data of 2019 on Sunday. My thanks again to you all.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to mention something here: some sources I have available note that construction of the Bangkok Thailand Temple is anticipated to conclude in 2021 or 2022. The Church shared in the final paragraph of the article announcing the release of the artist's rendering that construction is anticipated to take 3-4 years, so the completion estimate might be better stated as late 2022 or early 2023. Of course, if construction goes smoothly and without hindrance in its' progress, then perhaps the earlier estimate might not be far off. I say that with hardly any expertise or knowledge on the subject of temple construction, so you can take that as you will. Thanks again, everyone!
ReplyDeleteJust found the article about the Bangkok Thailand Temple:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mormonnewsroom.in.th/%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1/bangkok-temple-groundbreaking
Interestingly enough, while it notes that Elder David f. Evans, President of the Asia Area, gave the prayer to dedicate the site and led the turning of the soil, it appears that Elder Robert C. Gay, who has oversight for the Asia Area of the Church, presided over the events of the day. I am not sure why that is, but I am sure we will find out. Thanks again, everyone!
Elder Gay is a member of the Presidency of the 70, so he would preside. As far as why Elder Evans dedicated the site and led the groundbreaking, there could be several reasons, perhaps he had a large role in getting things ready and Elder Gay wanted to reward his efforts, or perhaps Elder Gay wasn't feeling well, or any number of other reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe stake center across the street from them the St. George Temple burnt down early this morning. It was undergoing a year long renovation. (Actually I think it was torn down and being rebuilt. Was supposed to be finished next month. I attended church there in High School. It was also my maternal grandparents building until they passed away.
ReplyDeleteWell, I actually have some insight into this that I didn't have when I last commented. Elder Gay is the member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and as such, has a role in assisting with the work of the Church in Asia under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve (from among whom I believe either Elder Stevenson or Elder Gong has apostolic oversight for that area). Since he has a role in overseeing the work in Asia, it makes sense that he would preside at this event, and he dedicated the site for the construction process. Elder Evans led the groundbreaking because he is the Asia Area President, and the First Presidency had designated him to perform that task. Usually, at such events, the groundbreaking and site dedication are done by one individual, which occurred last week when Elder Holland did both in presiding over the groundbreaking for the Urdaneta Philippines Temple.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that, going back in Church history and looking over previous temples, that two separate individuals doing the two different parts was not all that uncommon. There was even a time in early Church history where a site dedication would be followed months or years later by the groundbreaking.
Getting back to the Bangkok temple, given what I have shared above, in that sense, I am not surprised that Elder Gay and Elder Evans each led a part of this process. Since the members of the Presidency of the Seventy have a similar role overseeing the work of the Church in various areas thereof, we may be returning to a time when the groundbreaking and site dedications are conducted by two different people, even if that occurs on the same day.
And the Newsroom of the Church has, since my last comment, published an official article on this event, to which I share the address below (and this article, unlike the other one, is in English, which should be helpful as well).
https://www.mormonnewsroom.hk/eng/article/church-leaders-break-ground-for-temple-in-bangkok
For additional verification of what occurred, I would refer anyone interested to the following web address:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/bangkok-thailand-temple/
Thanks again for taking time to comment.
Thanks again for taking time to comment.
Sorry, L. Chris Jones. I was responding to Downtownchrisbrown when you posted your comment, and it took me until now to notice what you said. I had read about the St. George stake center fire, but hadn't had time to mention it here. There were also other articles published by the Church News recently that are worthy of attention, including the first biographies for newly-called mission presidents. Anyone interested can find both of these articles and others at the web address below:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/
My thanks again to you, L. Chris Jones, for taking time to comment. I always appreciate hearing from you and again apologize for my delayed response.
Hello again, everyone! I have some additional Church news to pass along, from the Church's official website. First, and most importantly, in keeping with the promise given in March of last year when the Church announced that the the First Presidency message was being discontinued and that subsequent messages from the leading Quorum of the Church would be shared in Church magazines or on the Church's website, President Nelson has authored a blog post, which is currently featured right on the main website. In that post, he writes a message of thanks to the sisters of the Church for the way they responded to the recommendations he shared with them during the Women's Session last October. You can find that message at the web address below, and it is well worthy of the attention of the men in the Church as well:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lds.org/blog/a-message-of-gratitude-and-a-promise-for-the-women-of-the-church-in-2019?lang=eng
Additionally, the following stories were reported under the Church news page (rather than the Newsroom, which is not under the lds URL):
https://www.lds.org/blog/a-message-of-gratitude-and-a-promise-for-the-women-of-the-church-in-2019?lang=eng
And there may be other significant Church news stories on which I have not focused previously as well that have been featured on the Church's main News page, which you can find (and which I can wholeheartedly endorse without hesitation, as each is well worthy of your time) at the web address below:
https://www.lds.org/church/news?lang=eng
Thanks again, everyone!