BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the Fort Worth Texas Temple; Groundbreaking Scheduled for the Barcelona Spain Temple

Hello again, everyone! As anticipated, the First Presidency officially announced the next major temple construction updates. Today, it was opening arrangements for the Fort Worth Texas Temple and groundbreaking arrangements for the Barcelona Spain Temple. Let's get into all the relevant details:

We start in Fort Worth Texas. The media day for that temple will take place on Monday, November 2, 2026, followed by two days of tours for invited guests. The public is invited to tour that temple between Thursday, November 5, and Saturday, November 21, 2026. The temple dedication will follow on Sunday, January 10, 2027, with the presiding apostle TBA. I had hoped that the Fort Worth Texas Temple might be dedicated before the end of this year, but I was clearly mistaken in that theory.

I don't know what that means for the Smithfield Utah Temple. Likely that dedication will occur in 2027, I assume, but we'll have to see. For whatever reason, it appears that the Church may be opting to not schedule any dedications for the month of December going forward, which would make sense so the focus can be on the Savior during the Christmas season. 

I will have to evaluate that and figure out how it may alter the estimates I have previously offered. This dedication has been added to my document showing apostolic temple dedications during President Oaks' prophetic tenure. I am grateful we got this announcement. and llook forward to seeing what the timing is on other upcoming dedications.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Barcelona Spain Temple is set to take place on Saturday, September 19, 2026, under the direction of Elder James W. McConkie III of the Europe Central Area Presidency. This is the second groundbreaking to be set between the August 29 groundbreaking for the Couer d'Alene Idaho Temple and the previously announced October 10 groundbreaking for the Maceio Brazil Temple.

This brings the number of scheduled 2026 temple groundbreakings to 16. Last year, the 16th temple groundbreaking took place on September 25, so I hope we see one or two more groundbreakings set to occur in September to even things out. Time will tell on that hope. I am grateful for this announcement as well. On my blog a little while ago, someone had mentioned that a groundbreaking committee had been formed for this temple, so I knew that the groundbreaking announcement was only a matter of time.

So the Barcelona groundbreaking was on my radar for the near term, as was the announcement of opening arrangements for the Fort Worth Texas Temple, even if said arrangements were on a different timeframe than I had projected. Hopefully we soon hear news of the opening arrangements for the Smithfield Utah Temple, other temple groundbreakings, and more exterior renderings and site location confirmations.

I invite you all to 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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