BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Tacloban City Philippines Temple Groundbreaking Confirmed; Birmingham England Temple Groundbreaking Set; Site Location Confirmed and Preliminary Details Released for the Huntsville Alabama Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, in a single news release, the First Presidency confirmed the groundbreaking for the Tacloban City Philippines Temple, set groundbreaking arrangements for the Birmingham England Temple, and confirmed the location and preliminary details about the Huntsville Alabama Temple. The confirmed groundbreaking for the Philippines' newest temple speaks for itself, so let's break down the details for the other two temples named above.

The Birmingham England Temple's groundbreaking will take place on Saturday, March 22, 2025, under the direction of Europe North Area President Elder Scott D. Whiting. Three weeks after the last announced groundbreaking (for the Cali Colombia Temple), the third temple groundbreaking for 2025 will occur roughly 2.5 months ahead of the third groundbreaking the previous year. So, 2025 will far outpace 2024 in terms of temple groundbreakings alone, though that is expected to also be true for temple dedications in 2025 vs. 2024.

I say that because there are several temples likely to have a groundbreaking announced soon. Those include the Singapore, Lone Mountain Nevada, Lethbridge Alberta; Bakersfield California; Tampa Florida, McKinney Texas; and Cape Town South Africa Temples. If all of these temples have groundbreakings announced within the next 3-4 months or less, they could easily all have groundbreakings before the end of June of this year.

That brings me to the initial details announced for the Huntsville Alabama Temple. It is the first temple announced in October 2024 to have initial details officially confirmed. A 21-acre site at the southeast corner of Gillespie and Browns Ferry Road, Madison, Madison County, Alabama, will serve as the location of the single-story, 30,000-square-foot edifice.

 It occurred to me to wonder why this temple is so much bigger than its' counterpart in Birmingham Alabama. But I think that may be because the Church is planning to renovate and expand the Birmingham Temple, during which time the temple patrons in Birmingham's district could easily be accommodated in Huntsville.

So that brings us to some final thoughts on today's announcements. I'm glad we got another groundbreaking and the preliminary information for one more temple. In the coming weeks, on Mondays, I anticipate we will get more dedication announcements. The Antofagasta Chile Temple has been completed for a while now, so I'm not sure what (if anything) may be preventing the Church from setting dedication arrangements for that temple. Major construction is also now completed on the Grand Junction Colorado Temple, marking another temple for which we could soon see opening arrangements confirmed.

And with 2 other temples (Farmington New Mexico and Burley Idaho) nearly completed, 2 others (Syracuse Utah and Bahia Blanca Argentina) nearing completion, and 5 more (Alabang Philippines, Elko Nevada, Harare Zimbabwe, Lindon Utah, and Davao Philippines) approaching completion, we could see dedications announced for most of these temples within the next.2-6 months, if not sooner. And, as noted above, there are 7 temples that could have groundbreakings announced soon, most of which could be announced in the next 2-6 weeks, if not sooner.

So lots of temple news may be coming down the pike in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned here for updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines. 

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Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.