Stokes Sounds Off: BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Judge Rules in Favor of the Church in the Heber Valley Utah Temple Dispute

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Judge Rules in Favor of the Church in the Heber Valley Utah Temple Dispute

Hello again, everyone! It is unusual for a breaking temple news update to be provided on Friday, but there is one, so let's dive right into it: the judge has ruled in favor of the Church in the Heber Valley Utah Temple matter. This means that the temple in question will be built as planned, since the Heber City residents were found to have a lack of standing or say when it comes to how religious buildings are constructed, or the associated zoning granted by the county. 

This update was originally provided to me in this comment from Noah in the threads of the previous post, so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him here for making me aware of it. With that ruling coming in late today, the Church can proceed with construction of the temple at their earliest convenience. It will obviously take time for construction equipment to arrive at the site, and for full-scale construction to begin, but hopefully that will only take weeks, whereas resolving this matter in the courts has taken just over 2 years (since the groundbreaking). 

So stay tuned here for updates on the Heber Valley Utah  Temple as those updates cross my radar, in addition to the other 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. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below.

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9 comments:

  1. KSL has shared this report on today's announcement, and the Church News has shared one additional Pioneer Day report. My thanks once again to you all.

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    1. On this Pioneer Day, the Church News has shared a law professor's thoughts on why religious freedom is important. My thanks once again to you all.

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    2. Acting President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles served as Grand Marshal of the KSL "Days of '47" Parade, while Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, a GA Seventy who will be granted emeritus status next week on August 1 (until which time he is also the Executive Director of the Family History Department) spoke at the Church's Annual Pioneer Day Sunrise Service. My thanks once again to you all.

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    3. And the Church News also shared the update of President Holland at the parade. My thanks once again to you all.

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    4. BYU-Idaho's Spring Graudcation featured remarks by Brother Chad H. Webb, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency. My thanks once again to you all.

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    5. I meant "Spring Graduation" above. I apologize for the unintentional autofill.

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    6. Construction status updates have been provided for the Modesto California and Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temples. My thanks once again to you all.

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    7. The Church News has shared two new reports this far this Friday. My thanks once again to you all.

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    8. The latest edition of "This Week on Social" has been published, and it featured posts from the following general Church leaders:

      President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency; Acting President Jeffrey R. Holland and Elders Dale G. Renlund and Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson; Sisters Tamara W. Runia and Andrea Munoz Spannaus, the respective First and Second Counselors in the Young Women General Presidency (the latter of whom published via Young Women Worldwide); Primary General President Susan H. Porter and her respective First and Second Counselors, Sisters Amy A. Wright and Tracy Y. Browning; and outgoing Young Men General President Steven J. Lund (who will be released one week from today).

      I am slightly intigured that we have not yet had any social media posts from the Sunday School General Presidency members' accounts since they were sustained a year ago next Friday. I'm sure there's a reason for it, perhaps because the Gospel Learning and Teaching social media page set up by the previous Sunday School General Presidency is now the go-to place for Sunday School content, or because there has been unforeseen difficulty setting those members up with their accounts. And I know there has also been a delay getting the biographies of all 17 new GA Seventies up on the Church website as well. So I'm sure there's good reasons for these interesting anomalies, and for the fact that we haven't yet heard from the Sunday School General Presidency members in General Conference. It will be interesting to see how all of that is resolved in the days ahead. My thanks once again to you all.

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