BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the Mesa Arizona Temples

Note: This post was originally published at 10:02 AM, and updated with additional analysis throughout that afternoon.

Hello again, everyone! This morning, the First Presidency announced the reopening dates for the Mesa Arizona Temple. At some point shortly after the Newsroom reported those arrangements, subsequent additional coverage on the announcement was provided through the Church News. I was surprised by the timing of both the arrangements being announced and by the parameters of when that will take place. Let's get into the details. 

I want to note right at the outset that I had believed and asserted as recently as earlier this week that the reopening of the Mesa Arizona Temple seemed likely to be delayed into 2022, primarily because I knew Arizona has had some issues getting COVID-19 properly controlled. At the same time, however, I recognize that the First Presidency likely has some information that may not be available to those of us not privy to the relevant discussions that has led them to surmise that this temple can be safely reopened.

Getting into the specifics of this morning's announcement, the Church announced plans to dedicate the Visitor's Center on Thursday August 12 @ 7:00 PM PDT.The use of Pacific Daylight time in those arrangements may require a bit of explanation. Time works differently in Arizona. Most of the year, Arizona aligns with Mountain Standard time, as a result of which the time in Denver, a majority of Arizona, and here in Utah is exactly the same. 

But because Arizona does no spring forward or fall back time-wise, when daylight savings time impacts Denver and Utah, most of Arizona (including Mesa) does not shift, and the time during those months aligns with Pacific time (which is impacted by Daylight Savings).. So during Daylight Savings time, although most of Arizona doesn't observe that, given the shifts in Denver and Utah, the Pacific Daylight time applies to Arizona.

The open house for the Mesa Arizona Temple will be held in the weeks between the Saturdays of October 16 and November 20, 2021. That is a period of 35 full days, but tours will obviously not he conducted on any of the applicable Sundays (October 17, 24, and 31 and November 7 and 14), which brings the number of open house tour days down to 30.

A youth devotional is set to occur on Saturday December 11, with the rededication set for the following day. Three rededicatory sessions will be held (at 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 3:00 PM). Presiding over that weekend's events will be President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency. The youth devotional and rededicatory sessions will be carried to all meeting houses in the temple district, which will allow a smaller number of guests to safely gather for each session in the temple proper.

And it appears that in-person attendance in the temple proper will be by invitation only. The announcement notes that additional details will be announced closer to that temple's opening. Given that the rededication of this temple is occurring roughly one month after the recently-announced dedication of the Pocatello Idaho Temple, it will be very interesting to see what happens in terms of opening arrangements for temples that are or will sonon be completed, and for the rededications of the Washington DC, Tokyo Japan, and Hamilton New Zealand Temples.

I imagine that the First Presidency is waiting a little longer on announcing arrangements for the Hamilton temple because more needs to be done to move it towards completion, but since New Zealand has the pandemic well under control, the Church could probably fit that in to the schedule wherever it might make sense. We additionally know that Brazil still does not have the pandemic under control, nor is that likely to occur until April of next year, so the dedication of the Rio de Janeiro temple might be postponed until that time. If Washington DC (technically Maryland), Japan, Manitoba, Ecuador, Guam, San Juan, and Praia all continue to see improvements in COVID-19 conditions, those temples could ee opening dates announced in the coming months as well.

The one big question, to which we might not have an answer in the near term, is whether any of these other temples to which I referred might be able to have their openings before the end of the year. My gut feeling is that the Church will likely hold off on announcing reopening arrangements for the Tokyo temple until after the rescheduled 2020 Olympic Summer Games in that city conclude. And it will be considerably easier for the Church to schedule openings for smaller temples. So I'm thinking that we might see the Church dedicate the Quito temple and rededicate the Tokyo and/or Hamilton temples by the end of this year, and that other temple openings or reopenings might be deferred until the early months of next year.

But the Lord has surprised us in the recent past, and He can and definitely will continue to do so in the future. In the meantime, I am grateful to have learned of and been able to cover this announcement today, and I was intrigued by the mention that "additional details" will be announced on the Mesa reopening closer to the time it is set to occur, so we'll look forward to seeing what that means. Aside from that, I will continue to also monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and will bring word of those to you all as I become aware thereof.

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.