But the First Presidency is expanding the phased reopening of temples today, with the first 12 temples announced for phase 2 reopening, which continues the closure of temple cafeterias, clothing rental, and patron housing, but allows those temples to be open for all living ordinances, which means that for those 12 temples, those going out on missions will be able to receive their own endowment before their departure.
The 12 set to open in that phase 2 status as of next week are as follows: Billings Montana, Bismarck North Dakota, Columbus Ohio, Copenhagen Denmark, Frankfurt and Freiberg Germany, Helsinki Finland, Seuol Korea, Stockholm Sweden, Taipei Taiwan, The Hague Netherlands, and Winter Quarters Nebraska. It is good to see the Church continuing the cautious and carefully-coordinated phased reopening of temples.
If that was the only big temple news, it would be reason enough to rejoice, but the First Presidency also issued an official message by way of informing the Church and its' friends of other faiths that more changes had been approved for the endowment ceremony in temples. This follows changes announced to temple worship in early January 2019. The nature of the changes alluded to today is not known.
But the First Presidency concluded today's statement with the following comments: "Given the sacredness of the temple ceremonies, we ask our members and friends not to engage in speculation or public discussions about these changes. Rather, we invite Church members to continue to look forward to the day when they may return and fully participate in sacred temple work prayerfully and gratefully."
As one who sustains the Brethren as prophets, seers, and revelators, I accept that final paragraph of counsel as setting the parameters of the breadth and depth of any discussion that may follow here on this blog about the changes to which the statement alluded. Therefore, those specific guidelines will govern the discussion (or lack thereof) of the changes in question.
With the first temples reopening under phase 2 next week, hopefully the phased reopening of temples will continue undeterred, and I predict based on that that some temples may be open under phase 4 by the Monday before the October 2020 General Conference, but that prediction is subject to confirmation, denial, or correction through official channels.
In the meantime, I do continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring word and analysis to you all on that as I become are of such developments. 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.
Hello again, everyone! In addition to what i reported above, the Newsroom also shared updates today on the Church's ongoing efforts to reintegrate towards a "new normal" for Church operations:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-update
The following more specific updates have been shared in relation to the above report:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/multimedia/file/church-distribution-retail-stores.pdf
https://www.deseretindustries.org/reopen
I also have been made aware of some minor updates relating to temple construction. At the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple site, while structural framing continues for the lower levels of that temple, the deck for the third floor is being installed. Meanwhile, a report I have received also appears to indicate that full-scale construction will commence on the Feather River California Temple at some point this week. If that happens, it will leave 4 temples in the "Full-scale construction pending" status, namely, Auckland New Zealand, Alabang Philippines, Puebla Mexico, and Lima Peru Los Olivos. The groundbreaking for the second temple named for the Peruvian capital city occurred over a year ago. Although that process is currently stalled as an apparent result of COVID-19, there does not seem to be any indication of what the holdup was on that prior to COVID-19's wide-spread impact.
But I am hopeful that the Church is working on whatever factors might be delaying progress on all temples which have had a groundbreaking or are announced, and that a series of announcements in the near future relating to that subject may be made soon.
In the interim, with the site cleared for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple, there has been a new report on the Taylorsville Utah Temple site, where the stake center has bben completely demolished. I am hopeful we will soon hear about groundbreaking arrangements for those two temples. And we are still awaiting word on whether the signature-gathering process for a ballot initiative about the residential development and temple planned in Erda Utah has been successful. I am hopeful that somehow, either that process won't yield success, or that those responsible for the objections will withdraw them. Stay tuned as more is learned about that.
And I'd also mention here that, although the Church may primarily focus on getting approvals for the stateside temples, which may be more easily and quickly accomplished than getting approval for some international temples, I received a new report recently which seems to indicate that the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple might be the next temple outside the United States to have a groundbreaking, so that is a total of four additional temples that could have a groundbreaking in August, September, or October.
I am still hoping to post an overview of recent changes I have made to several of my temple files in the relatively near future, so stay tuned for that. Thanks again, everyone!