Hello again, everyone! In late February of this year, congregational mission leadership had been invited to participate in the Temple and Family History Leadership Training, The training focused on the correlation between missionary efforts and temple worship. Fast forward to the Sunday Morning Session which has just wrapped up. With a temple/missionary theme, I felt even more certain that this Sunday Morning Session would bring the announcement of new temples. But the Lord had something else in mind. Elder David A. Bednar, who, as noted previously, chairs the Temple and Family History Executive Council, did announce that the Church is planning on breaking ground for 18 new temples this year.
That means that, in addition to the 4 already scheduled (in Richmond Virgninia, Alabang Philippines, Layton Utah, and Auckland New Zealand), 14 other temples will also see groundbreakings this year. While it may be too early to tell which temples might have that happen, I have a fair idea. The Church is also likely to break ground for the following temples: Orem, Taylorsville, and Tooele Valley Utah, Brasilia Brazil, Feather River California, San Pedro Sula Honduras, Coban Guatemala, Managua Nicaragua, Nairobi Kenya, Harare Zimbabwe, Moses Lake Washington, Washington County Utah, McAllen Texas, and either Phnom Pehn Cambodia or Bengaluru India. So we have many more temple-related announcements to which we can look forward, including the likely announcement of a at least a few new temples at the conclusion of this General Conference by President Nelson.
After a session during which missionary work and temple worship was a dual focus, the Solemn Assembly portion of General Conference was prefaced by President Nelson through the release of a new official proclamation in honor of this bicentennial milestone of the Restoration. The prophet noted that that Proclamation would be made available online directly after the session in which it was introduced. While the proclamation is currently available in 14 languages and will soon be available through the Gospel Libery app is many other languages, I wanted to share a link to the English text thereof, as it was read by President Nelson.
It is a wonderfully inspirational document, and I hope we will all take time to review it repeatedly over the next little while. In the meantime, barring anything very unexpected, I am anticipating that any number of new temples will be announced by President Nelson during his remarks that will conclude this bicentennial General Conference, and I will bring word of and analysis about that announcement ASAP after it it made. In the meantime, that does it for now. 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 of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
BREAKING NEWS: 18 Temples Will Have a Groundbreaking This Year; President Nelson Introduces a New Proclamation in Honor of the Restoration's Bicentennial Anniversary
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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The Church News posted this article today about the Hosanna Shout and the local times around the world when it occurred: https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-04-05/general-conference-april-2020-sunday-morning-session-hosanna-shout-180310
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the vast majority of listed cities are cities that have a temple, but a small number aren’t. (I noticed El Alto, Bolivia, Moscow, Russia, Singapore, Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam, Jakarta, Indonesia, Hamilton, Ontario*, and Jerusalem, Israel**.) Makes me wonder if any of these are going to be announced today.
* Hamilton is a suburb of Toronto, and I don’t think there’s any talk of a second temple for Toronto.
** I don’t expect a Jerusalem temple announcement, if we get one, we’re a lot closer to the second coming than I thought!
Daniel, thanks for stopping by to share that article, of which I was aware but hadn't had a chance to pass along myself before now. While some of the cities you mentioned could get a temple, the reason they were specifically listed was because they are all cities to which President Nelson has made a prophetic ministry visit. As you noted, some of those locations do not yet have a temple, and for some, they appear more likely to have a temple announced sooner. I don't think we can draw any solid conclusion that any of them that do not have a temple announced currently will have that occur in the upcoming final session.
DeleteThat said, El Alto is a suburb of La Paz Bolivia, and I wouldn't be shocked to see a temple announced for that city or for Santa Cruz Bolivia. For Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia, President Nelson noted during his tour of those nations that a temple for each location might not be announced right away. And Russia has had a temple announced, though it is anyone's guess how soon construction might be able to begin on that one. But I have on good authority from some of the sources I personally have available to me that when the official city for that temple will likely wind up being Moscow. That will be up to President Nelson to confirm, clarify, or correct, whenever the time is right to do so, but that's what I am hearing currently on my end from my available sources. Thanks, Daniel, for taking time to comment.
8 temple announced!
ReplyDeleteBahia Blanca, Argentina
Tallahassee, Florida
Lubumbashi, DR Congo
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Benin City, Nigeria
Syracuse, Utah
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Shanghai, China
Dubai already has a site!
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-announces-temple-united-arab-emirates
coachodeeps, thanks for stopping by to share the list of temples that were announced, and specifically the article verifying that the Dubai temple already has a site location confirmed, of which I was not aware.
DeleteWith this latest set of announced temples, a couple of the resources available to me that I was using to formulate my post about the announcements were intermittently down while i tried to get that post created and published, so I had to delay publishing the post in question until I was sure I had the resources I needed to back up the content i had assembled. Thanks again for posting about this news here. Hopefully Dubai will have an accelerated construction process as a result of the fact that land has already been procured for that prospect. I always appreciate hearing from you.
I wonder how Shanghai is going to be set up. I suspect part of the reason it’s going to be by appointment is that, to comply with Chinese law, the Church is likely to have a set of ex-pat temple workers as well as a set of Chinese temple workers. I wonder how the temple presidency will work, that’s one place where you’d need some cooperation between the Church’s Chinese organization and ex-pat organization.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, my understanding is that the Shanghai temple may operate out of an existing Church facility in the city, and that it would be a multipurpose, multiuse setting, kind of like what was done in Hong Kong before the Church offices that used to occupy space in the temple were relocated.
DeleteIf the intention is to utilize such a multipurpose space while Hong Kong continues its' renovation, the odds are very good that something could happen quickly there. If the Chinese government has agreed to the arrangement in this specific case, they must be willing to work with the Church.
As far as a temple presidency, or how the temple will be staffed, or hours of operation, I imagine all of that is yet-to-be-determined. It could be that the Church wanted to get the announcement of the arrangement out now, and worry about the logistics of it later. But for the Shanghai temple, I imagine that when things start moving, they will move very quickly. Just wanted to note that. Thanks, Daniel, for taking time to comment.
Although it may be difficult, I could actually see the Shanghai temple only being allowed for PRC natives since Pres Nelson was talking about it not being a tourist temple. That would make temple attendance more difficult for expats but in order to comply with government laws and have a temple inside of PRC it would be worth it. I'm sure every single last expat would understand and comply to keep the church in good standings with the government. I just hope the rest of the worldwide membership understands it too.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised the the UAE temple was announced in Dubai since the stake is in Abu Dhabi, but after reading the article it makes sense since that is where the country offered it to be after the expo.
For me, the Syracuse temple was a surprise and of course China. I had suggested UAE a few years ago but most people did not take me seriously.
I was surprised to not have Mongolia on the list today.
Hello, Kenny. Thanks for weighing in here. I guess the degree to which non-native current residents of China might be served by the Shanghai temple would be something that the Church will work out as the process gets further along. Times, situations, and circumstances change, and the Church has been great about rolling with all such punches of late. I'm sure the membership of the Church will be understanding about this specifically. I fully believe that's why President Nelson clarified under what parameters it would be built and operated right out of the gate. The Shanghai Temple could be something else that has been steadily worked on since President Nelson became President of the Church, and his status as an "old friend of China" probably didn't hurt in that respect.
DeleteMy personal research on a temple for the UAE had confirmed Dubai as the most likely location, which, given their request to the Church about it, is not surprising at all. I know that the temple announcements made during each of President Nelson's 5 General Conferences as Church President thus far either fall into the "makes sense", "about time", or "totally blindsided" categories. I know that some candidates on my list going into this General Conference were solely based on what President Nelson has announced in terms of temples thus far.
I think that Mongolia is bound to get a temple sooner rather than later. The fact that last year, it was transferred from the Asia to the Asia North Area of the Church will no doubt move it up as a priority. I'd say off-hand that a Mongolian temple is possible in the next 1-3 General Conferences, but that's without knowing what is and is not under consideration at Church HQ.
Hope these thoughts, such as they are, are helpful to you, Kenny. Thanks for taking time to comment. I always appreciate hearing from you.