Hello again, everyone! During the last few days, the African Newsroom has confirmed Saturday's groundbreaking for the Benin City Nigeria Temple and Sunday's dedication of the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple. I wondered if those would be the sum and total major temple construction updates we will get for the week, but still privately theorized that something else was likely to be announced today, in view of Memorial Day yesterday in the United States.
That impression was proven correct with today's announcement of groundbreaking arrangements for the Vancouver Washington Temple. The confirmation of these arrangements, which I will detail shortly, follows that temple's original announcement during the October 2023 General Conference, the confirmation of the site location io February 2024, the release of the exterior rendering in September 2024, and the March 2025 announcement that preliminary site work was beginning.
As for the groundbreaking arrangements, that ceremony will be held on Saturday, August 23, 2025. Elder Mark A. Bragg, the outgoing president of the current North America West Area (which will be renamed the United States West Area on August 1), will preside at that ceremony. Interestingly enough, he will have been released from that assignment on August 1, so by the time of the groundbreaking, he will be filling other assignments at Church headquarters.
Having previously served in the Family History and Church Communications Department, I could see him presiding at this groundbreaking in a new role, perhaps as the Executive Director of either the Family History or Temple Departments, either of which would make him a natural choice to preside at this groundbreaking.
Given that the Wellington New Zealand Temple groundbreaking will be on August 2, with this one set for August 23, I could potenitally see a couple others scheduled for groundbreakings in between those for Wellington and Vancouver. If nothing else is announced to occur before the latter date, this will be the twelfth temple groundbreaking in 2025. Last year, the twelfth temple groundbreaking was conducted on Saturday, September 27, so we are currently 35 days ahead of where we were, and other groundbreakings are forthcoming.
We also currently have some degree of a backlog in terms of temples that have had a groundbreaking recently but have not yet had full-scale construction begin, so hopefully some of those will be able to have construction begin soon. And with 3 temples completed and awaiting the announcement of their opening arrangements, I was a little surprised we didn't get any dedication announcements. Hopefully that is coming down the pike in the next week or two.
Stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest 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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Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
You are most welcome, Chris! And my thanks in return to you for being a good friend and follower of this blog for as long as you have been and done so. It's always nice to hear my efforts are appreciated. Hope all is well with you and yours. Thanks again for stopping by to comment.
ReplyDeleteOn this Tuesday, the Church News has posted some apostolic ministry updates, about Elder Patrick Kearon's ministry in the Philippines, study resources for the April 2025 General Conference talk by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the apostolic ministry of Elder Quentin L. Cook, and the text of the prayer offered by Elder Ronald A. Rasband to dedicate the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple. The Church News additionally released their latest podcast episode, and covered the updates about the Benin City Nigeria Temple groundbreaking and the forthcoming groundbreaking for the Vancouver Washington Temple. My thanks once again to you all.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, the Church News shared these resources for Elder Gary E. Stevenson's talk, in addition to further insights into having confidence before God, as President Nelson talked about in April, the death of the widow of one of the Church's emeritus GA Seventies, the counsel of Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman to missionaries at the Provo MTC, and this update on the Salt Lake Temple renovation, a version of which was also shared by the Newsroom. My thanks once again to you all.
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