Hello again, everyone! The final session of the April 2020 General Conference has just concluded, and in its' closing moments, our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, announced that 8 new temples will be built in the following locations: Bahia Blanca, Argentina; Tallahassee Florida; Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Benin City, Nigeria; Syracuse, Utah; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The Newsroom release is likely going to be updated over the next little while, but in the interim, further context has been provided by President Nelson, as relayed by the Church News. While acknowledging that it may seem strange to talk about announcing new temples while all operating temples are currently closed, the languge in the final 3 paragraphs of the Salt Lake Temple dedicatory prayer provides insight and perspective about the time in which we are currently living. With that background in mind, I have a few other thoughts to share on the monumental significance of this latest slate of announced temples. It was specifically also mentioned by President Nelson that the Saints in the Dubai area had specifically requested a temple.
Based on information I had previously received, the Saints in Bahia Blanca Argentina have also been lobbying the Church for a temple of their own. A few other comments on these announced temples. I had anticipated that the next Florida temple would go to Jacksonville, but recognize that one is needed in Tallahassee, so I'm not surprised by that announcement. It is also tremendous to consider that, less than a full year following the dedication of the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, a second one is being announced for that nation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which currently falls in the boundaries of the Africa Southeast Area, will become part of the new Africa Central Area in August of 2020. I am grateful that the Lord verified my choices of Bahia Blanca, Lubumbashi, Pittsburgh, Benin City, and Dubai. Another Utah temple is not a surprise. I was absolutely blown away, however, by the announcement of a temple for the People's Republic of China.
The nature of the Church''s current relationship with and arrangements for members of the Church in China remains unchanged, as confirmed by President Nelson, but it is nice that the Chinese government is willing to work with the Church in this particular case, and I have no doubts whatsoever that having a temple in Shanghai will greatly assist the Church and its' members in that relationship with the Chinese government, especially during this period of time when the Hong Kong China temple remains closed for its' renovation. It sounds to me as though the Church plans to move quickly on the Shanghai China Temple, and it will be interesting to see what specifically happens there. But the nature of what President Nelson said when he announced these 8 newest temples does lead me to wonder whether any of those that were announced today are going to move quickly enough through the approval process to be among the 16 that will have a groundbreaking this year, as mentioned by Elder Bednar. It will be interesting to see what happens with all of these temples, in addition to all others currently announced or under construction.
Understandably, due to the nature of the required updates, it may take the Church a little while into this evening to expand the official Newsroom release on these temples, and also, the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site appears to be down for the moment while the data, information, and pages for this and other temples are updated. Two other observations, if I may offer them: First, in April and October of last year, and in April of this year, 8 temples were announced each time. This suggests to me that 8 temples may continued to be announced per General Conference for the foreesable future. And secondly, with 8 temples added to the current queue, there are 43 announced temples. When we subtract the 4 for which a groundbreaking has already been scheduled, and the 12 others which will have a groundbreaking by the end of this year, depending on the timing for those 12, the queue of announced temples may continue to hover around 30, which is more or less what we have been told about President Nelson's plans. For my part, I continue to monitor all such developments, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things.
I should also note here that I will be publishing another post within the next hour to share the latest apostolic statistics, as the standard 7 weeks have passed since my last update. So stay tuned for that. 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 TEMPLE NEWS: President Nelson Announces 8 New Temples As the April 2020 General Conference Concludes
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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Unless there has been any ground broken this year so far in you post you are mentioning 16 groundbreakings this year but Elder Bednar said there will be 18 this year. With 4 scheduled it leaves 14 more groundbreakings to be announced and not 12 as you mentioned
ReplyDeleteThere have not been any groundbreakings this year thus far. And with the video archive of Elder Bednar's remarks not yet made available on the Church website, we don't have a solid way to verify either number. I am reasonbly certain it was 16, but I have been wrong about things like this in the past. 16 is tremendous, 18 would be even better. I look forward to (hopefully) confirming that you are right on this. Thanks, Nigel, for stopping by to comment.
DeleteLooking back over the history of my posts over General Conference weekend, I'd have to confirm this by reviewing the video of Elder Bednar's remarks, but I did post that the number was 18 when I reported on that development earlier today. If I at any point got that wrong in anythign I have posted today, I hope my readers in general (and you specifically, Nigel) will chalk it up to a personal error in light of all there was to report about this General Conference weekend. It would be wonderful if 1 more temples had a groundbreaking in addition to the 4 already scheduled. Either way, thanks again, Nigel, for stopping by to comment.
DeleteJust wanted to note here I have settled this question officially. LDS Living, known for extensive coverage of Church developments, covered Elder Bednar's comments as relating to temple progress in President Nelson's lifetime:
Deletehttps://www.ldsliving.com/A-Look-at-Temple-Growth-in-President-Nelson-s-Lifetime-Shared-by-Elder-Bednar/s/92663
The sixth point mentioned in that article is as follows: "This year we will break ground and start construction on 18 temples." So the 18 I reported in my previous post was correct, and any reference to 16 was my getting it wrong in view of all I have covered over this General Conference weekend. My thanks to LDS Living for this correction and confirmation, and to you again, Nigel, for stopping by to comment.
This is a separate note: Unless the Church schedules other groundbreakings in the next little while, I am not sure how likely it may be that any temples outside the 4 for which one is already scheduled might have a groundbreaking prior to the end of this year. But if only the 4 happen by the end of June, the Chhurch would have the entire months of August, September, October, November, and December to break ground on the remaining 10 temples, which would be an average of 2 per month. It is always possible, however, that the Church could schedule more than one temple to have future groundbreakings on days when groundbreakings are or will be scheduled for other temples. So there are options. My thanks once again to you all.
DeleteThe last time we saw the proposal of a multi purpose space was when the Church was considering opening a temple in another Communist Country with East Germany and the Freiberg Temple. For a time the Church was so concerned that the sanctity of the temple could be breached by secret police that they considered an Endowment House attached to a Stake Centre. In the event of repeated incursions in the temple, it could be repurposed as part of the Stake Centre.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what happens with that space. I look forward to see what form the UAE Temple takes.
Brett, thanks for stopping by to comment. I genuinely had no idea that the Shanghai temple was even on the radar, and the temple for the UAE has been on my list as a more long-shot prospect. But the case for both is compelling. And with the Nelsonian design that has been debuted within the last year for Yigo, Praia, and San Juan (multipurpose spaces in the temple), it is easy to see how the Church could repurpose current space for the Shanghai Temple. There will certainly be plenty to watch for in terms of temple developments, since 18 temples will have a groundbreaking this year. Thank you, Brett, for taking time to comment.
DeleteHello again, everyone! The Church News just now provided reaction from priesthood leaders and members in the locations in which temples were announced this afternoon:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-04-05/general-conference-april-2020-new-temples-members-reactions-180659
My thanks once again to you all for your continued interest and ongoing support.
Hi there!!
ReplyDeleteI hope today you had a good day and that health and encouragement accompany you.
I thought there would be more temple announcements, I'm glad to see such diverse countries have their temples in the near future, China, Emirates, Congo.
It was a pity that Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, among other countries that required it, were not there, without a doubt it must be planned, anyway, it will be sometime.
I look forward to the day that Geneaolgia on the www.familysearch.org platform is unrestricted because it delays our work, indexing is wonderful and it helps us all and parish registries can be released.
Family history centers do not open them, at least that is my experience in Santiago de Chile, there are many excuses, that will never change.
Still, I work on my family history with all the obstacles of the Church, and giving my names to the temple.
Thanks for sharing your blog, a hug from Santiago de Chile
Omar ElÃas Valenzuela E.
Hello again, Omar! Thanks for stopping by to comment. I always appreciate hearing from you. I will address my health and that of my wife more specifically in my response to your other recent comment on this blog.
DeleteI know that I was also anticipating that more temples would be announced and that President Nelson would take time to explain the preliminary or complete details of his plans to expand the number of temples, but I, for one, was not surprised that the focus was elsewhere for this General Conference. With a new Church symbol, a brand new official proclamation, and new temples announced in locations that need them, the way all of that was handled did not detract from the key focus of that memorable General Conference: the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get to a point where President Nelson actually does explain his plans and announce a more significant number of temples at the same time. In the meantime, with the Saints in Bahia Blanca Argentina and community leaders in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates having reached out to the Church directly to request temples in those locations, and with the historic nature of the announcement of a temple for Shanghai in the People's Republic of China, the nature of the temples announced this go-round is amazing.
As far as a new temple in Chile is concerned, I know that both you and Matthew Martinich on the Church Growth Blog have mentioned that the growth of the Church in Chile is currently stagnant. With that in mind, I can see why the Church might hold off on announcing another Chilean temple until the one in Antofagasta is further along in the construction process. I still feel hopeful enough that Chile will have another new temple announced in the not-too-distant future.
DeleteIn Bolivia and Colombia, perhaps the process of evaluating where the next temples should be built and how soon that can happen is the reason why no new temples have been announced at this time, but I'd count on the second temples being announced for both within the next 1-3 General Conferences.
In the meantime, based on recent news reports I have heard about Venezuela, the nation is in the midst of a pretty bad situation due to its' current political leaders. That is the kind of situation for which the leaders of the Church are likely opting to hold off on announcing another temple there for the time being. Whenever the next Venezuelan temple is announced, count on that announced location being Maracaibo, as that prospect was publicly proposed by President Hinckley a while ago.
Regarding family history, I hope that you've been following the latest developments reported by the FamilySearch website. The number of languages in which records are available there have been increased in the last several years, with several others that have been added thus far or will yet be added later this year. And it appears as though the latest adjustments and available resources have made that process more simple than it ever previously had been.
DeleteI also appreciated President Nelson's comments from General Conference this weekend that talked about being involved in family history while all operating temples of the Church are closed for now. Hopefully those temples will soon reopen.
In the meantime, we have received several important temple updates in the last few days, so hopefully that is a good sign. With 18 temple groundbreakings planned to occur throughout this year, when temples reopen, there will be even more reason to rejoice.
And the really fantastic thing is that, as i reported here a few days ago, I fully anticipate that the Church will have a total of at least 200 temples in operation by the end of 2024, if not sooner. That is even greater evidence that the work of the Church is moving forward at an accelerated pace, as President Nelson has repeatedly stated.
And I have a feeling that COVID-19, while it lasts, will serve to draw more people towards God in general and the Lord's Churhc in particular, so I anticipate a further increase in the accelerated pace whereby things will be moved.
If that is the result, then it is very likely that Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and all other nations which currently need more temples will have more announced sooner rather than later. There are at least 3-5 Chilean cities in which I see a temple being announced in the next two decades or less, with at least 2 each announced for Bolivia and Colombia within that same period of time. Venezuela's second temple may be delayed for now, but I'd count on that one being announced at some point after world conditions caused by COVID-19 and the current political turmoil settles there. In the meantime, Omar, hope these thoughts are helpful, and thanks again for taking time to comment.
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