Stokes Sounds Off: BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Additional Temple Reopenings Announced

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Tuesday, June 22, 2021

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Additional Temple Reopenings Announced

Hello again, everyone! Last night, knowing that the Church would be making its' weekly temple reopening announcements this morning, I repeated the process I've used to prepare for that announcement by scheduling a post to be published here not long after the anticipated announcement was made. I prepared a scheduled post for that purpose by copying and pasting the content of my last update into that scheduled post.

The post I'd prepared in advance was published roughly 2 hours ago as arranged, but I had yet another rough night last night and I wound up sleeping through the Church News alert on temple reopenings that was sent at around the same time the post was published here. We have seen major temple reopening developments reported weekly within the last month, and today was no different. When I got the chance to go over today's report, there were some very significant developments reported today alone.

So I opted to delete the previously-published post and start fresh. There is actually more to the coverage of today's announcement than the usual 2 articles from the Church News and the Newsroom release. Let's get into specifics. This week, the Newsroom noted that the Kyiv Ukraine Temple, which has not reopened in any phase since the closure of all operating temples was first announced, will reopen in phase 1 (allowing living husband-to-wife sealings where both are previously endowed, with limited guests in attendance and COVID-19 guidelines strictly observed). That temple is set to reopen next Monday (July 5). That development was further confirmed by the Church News.

Aside from that long-awaited announcement, the Church also noted this morning that 4 temples (Mexico City Mexico, Paris France, the Hague Netherlands, and Vancouver British Columbia) will transition from phase 2 (allowing all living ordinances in priority order) to phase 2-B (continuing to offer all living ordinances in priority order, but also allowing the baptistries in each of those temples to reopen to small groups). Additionally, the Church reported that 16 more North American temples reopened in phase 3 yesterday (Monday June 21). Those temples, broken down by the area of the Church under which they fall, are as follows:

North America Central: Boise, Idaho Falls, Meridian, and Rexburg Idaho; Billings Montana

North America Southwest: Monticello Utah; 

North America West: Fresno, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento,  and San Diego California

Utah: Manti, Mount Timpanogos, Payson, and Vernal Utah

The Church has now announced phase 3 reopenings for 25 of the 60 temples mentioned in that announcement, which means there are 35 temples remaining from that announcement. By area, that includes the following temples:

Caribbean: Port-au-Prince Haiti

Central America: Panama City Panama and Tegucigalpa Honduras

North America Central: Nauvoo Illinois and Star Valley Wyoming

North America Northeast: Montreal Quebec

North America Southeast: Birmingham Alabama

North America Southwest: The Gila Valley, Gilbert, Phoenix, Snowflake, and Tucson Arizona; Houston Texas; and the Mesa Arizona temple district (which will allow patrons to schedule phase 3 proxy work at the nearest temple.)

Utah: Draper, Jordan River, and Oquirrh Mountain; and the Salt Lake temple district (which will allow those in that district to schedule phase 3 proxy work at the nearest temple).

Having said that, we now similarly break down by geographic area of the Church the 36 additional temples which are set to open in phase 3 by the end of July:

Europe: Frankfurt and Freiburg Germany; Bern Switzerland; Copenhagen Denmark; Lisbon Portugal; Madrid Spain; Rome Italy

North America Central: Denver and Fort Collins Colorado; Bismarck North Dakota; Chicago Illinois; Regina Saskatchewan; St. Paul Minnesota; 

North America Northeast: Manhattan and Palmyra New York; Boston Massachusetts; Columbus Ohio (which, while undergoing renovation, will allow patrons to schedule phase 3 proxy work at the next nearest temple); Detroit Michigan; Hartford Connecticut; Indianapolis Indiana;  Philadelphia Pennsylvania; Washington D.C. (which, while awaiting rededication, will allow patrons to schedule phase 3 proxy work at the next nearest temple).

North America Southeast: Fort Lauderdale and Orlando Florida; Columbia South Carolina; Louisville Kentucky; Memphis Tennessee; Raleigh North Carolina

North America West: Columbia River, Seattle and Spokane Washington; Medford and Portland Oregon; Anchorage Alaska; Los Angeles California

Philippines: Cebu City Philippines

South America Northwest: Guayaquil Ecuador

As of next Monday (June 28), the reopening status of all temples will break down as follows: 1 temple (Kyiv Ukraine) remains closed but is set to reopen in phase 1 next week; 8 others are undergoing renovation (2 of those districts have been granted phase 3 reopening status; with 4 granted phase 2-B opening status); 8 others remain paused (2 in phase 2-B, and 3 others each in phase 3 and phase 2); 2 remaining in phase 1; 18 in phase 2; 62 in phase 2-B; and the remaining 69 now in phase 3. The latest changes are also available in an area-by-area update of the temple reopening status tracker

I am grateful to have been able. to learn about and share these latest updates with you all. I continue to monitor all Church news reports and temple developments, and will be sure to pass word of those on to you all here as I learn about them.

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.

3 comments:

  1. The Church News has provided the audio and transcript for the latest edition of the Church News podcast:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2021-06-22/episode-36-norman-c-hill-silver-linings-of-aging-217139

    And in the wake of Elder Michael A. Dunn's call as a General Authority Seventy, the Church also announced today that Brother Jeff M. Simpson, would serve as the new BYU broadcasting director. Brother Simpson and his wife were originally announced this year as the new leaders of the Washington Yakima Mission, but the First Presidency invited him recently to accept this change in assignment instead. I imagine that means another couple will be called in their place to fill that misssion assignment.

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Updates have been noted today on the Talahassee Florida and Syracuse Utah Temples, which indicate that both temples have had (or will soon have) full-scale construction begin:

      https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/tallahassee-florida-temple/

      https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/syracuse-utah-temple/

      In view of these updates, the total number of temples currently under construction has risen to 33, ad as of this Sunday, a total of 3 others Helena Montana (which will have a groundbreaking the day before that), Antofagasta Chile, and Harare Zimbabwe. My thanks once again to you all.

      Delete
  2. In my first comment from today, I referenced the Newsroom coverage of the change for BYU Broadcasting, bit due to an oversight on my part, I didn't include the article itself. Here is that web address:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/byu-broadcasting-new-director

    The Church News covered that development the afternoon:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-06-22/new-byu-broadcasting-managing-director-announced-217255

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete

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