Hello again, everyone! As many of you are no doubt aware, in recent weeks, every Tuesday, that the Church has released the latest updates on the ongoing process of reopening temples. Since the Church switched the weekly announcements from Monday to Tuesday, those announcements have traditionally been made around or within the 10:00 AM hour.
I don't know if there was a lag today due to the recent federal holiday in the United States, but the announcement was made today just a short while ago. At the time this post was published, the updats from this week were only available through the Newsroom. Whenever coverage of these updates is available in the Church News, I will be sure to pass that along.
Update (added at noon): Apparently, while I was composing this post, the corresponding updates have been shared by the Church News, including coverage of the latest reopening announcements and the updated status tracker. The latter two updates additionally mentioned that 19 more temples had opened in phase 3 this week.
They include the following, broken down first by area, then listed in alphabetical order within those areas (except in cases where two or more temples in any states are announced, in which case those in the same state are listed together, followed then by temples in other states in each area)::
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; Detroit Michigan; Hartford Connecticut; Indianapolis Indiana; Philadelphia Pennsylvania; Washington D.C.
North America West: Columbia River and Seattle 'Washington; Los Angeles California; Portland Oregon
The information from the Church News also specified that the Medford Oregon and Spokane Washington Temples, which had previously been announced for phase 3 reopenings before the end of July, have had that channge pushed back into August out of concern about COVID-19 conditions and restrictions.
The Anchorage Alaska Temple will begin phase 3 operations next Monday (July 12, after having been in phase 2-B since May 24). On that same date, the Calgary Alberta Temple will transition to phase 2-B, which will allow all living ordinances and limited proxy baptisms by appointment. Additonal note (also added during the noon hour): The Church News coverage also reiterated that, as previously announced, the Manila Philippines and Stockholm Sweden Temples will transition to phase 2-B next Monday (July 12), assuming COVID-19 assessments allow that to occur on scheduled. The Church News also provided an updated list of 21 temples for which phase 3 openings have been set for later this month or sometime next month. Having added that, let's return to the previously-published content.
Meanwhile, plans have also been announced for 3 temples in Canada (Calgary and Edmonton Alberta and Halifax Nova Scotia) 2 in the North America West Area (Medford Oregon and Spokane Washington) and one in Asia (Sapporo Japan) to transition to phase 3 on yet-unspecified dates in July or August, depending on COVID-19 conditions in each location..As of next Monday (July 12), the Church's temple reopenings will break down as follows (Please note: In the initially-published version of this post, I used the breakdown of numbers provided by the Newsroom, which mistakenly listed the data as if all the announced phase changes has already occurred. The corrected numbers below are featured courtesy of the Church News)::
8 temples closed for renovation (6 of which have been granted phase 3 designation, which allows those residing in those districts to schedule proxy work at whichever temple closest to them is in phase 3); 9 temples remain "paused" in their reopenings (of which 4 had reached phase 3, with 2 more in phase 2-B and 3 others in phase 2); 3 others in phase 1; 10 in phase 2; 38 in phase 2-B; and the remaining 100 in phase 3.
I am grateful for these latest updates, and for the Church's measured methods of reopening temples through using a week-by-week, temple-by-temple consideration of relevant factors. I am also likewise grateful for all other Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to bring you all word of those 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.
