Open House and Dedication Dates Announced for the Paris France Temple

The First Presidency today announced the open house and dedication dates for the Paris France Temple. The open house will run for four weeks from Saturday April 22-Saturday May 13, with the obvious exceptions of the 3 Sundays of April 23 and 30 and May 7. The cultural celebration will be held exactly one week after the last day of the open house, with the dedication following the next day on Sunday May 21 in three sessions. Church block meetings for France and French-speaking units in the Europe Area will be cancelled in honor of the dedication.

The Paris France temple is not only significant as being the first temple in France; it is also one of less than a handful of temples whose construction commenced without a formal groundbreaking. I will never forget how I felt when I first heard that a temple was coming to Paris. I have loved the French language all my life, and I was excited for the opportunity to take French for three years in High School. If I had been able to serve a proselyting mission, I would have loved to go to France or somwhere French-speaking. As it was, I got plenty of opportunities to use my French in my service at the temple. I even was blessed to work at the temple with a French teacher who helped me with my pronunciation of French words. When my missionary service ended, I wanted to go on and study more French in college, but due to health reasons, my college experience ended early. I have tried to faithfully follow the news of the Church in France. I had for years felt that a temple in France would happen one day, but, as with the Payson Utah temple, I wasn't convinced a French temple would happen during my lifetime.

I will never forget the story from a French newspaper leaking the news that the Church was looking at building a temple in France. There followed a very vigorous, sometimes even hostile debate on Wikipedia as to whether we should use the date President Monson acknowledged plans to build a temple in France (sometime in July of 2011) or the date of the actual announcement (which came during the October 2011 General Conference). I waited with great anxiety to see when a groundbreaking date would be set. I was blown away by the report that, because of local opposition to the temple, a formal groundbreaking would not be held.

And so, the work commenced. I have kept an eye on the progress of this temple, because it's important to me personally. Things moved along slowly but surely. Though other temples came and went around the Paris France construction, I still rejoiced at the news of each development related to the temple.

I was gratified to hear through a comment on my own blog by Rick Satterfield just recently that a dedication announcement was just a matter of time. And now we have the wonderful announcement today of the dedication date. Truly it is wonderful to see the progress that is being made on temple construction worldwide.

I wanted to focus just on this milestone announcement for this post. I will post again in a few minutes with my updated temple construction progress report and an updated list of upcoming temple-related events. Until then, all the best!

Temple Construction Progress Update

Hello, all! Just posting with some exciting developments on the temple news front. In addition to what has already been noted in the last few updates on the Cedar City Utah temple, that temple is also having window frames and art glass put in. Additionally, due to new information from Rick Satterfield, it appears that the Arequipa Peru temple has been downgraded to a groundbreaking pending status, rather than specifying a date. In the meantime, the Winnepeg temple remains the one and only temple with a groundbreaking date estimated.

Temple Construction Progress Report (current as of 11/2/16)

Current Temple Status: 154 operating; 1 scheduled for dedication; 11 under construction; 3 undergoing renovation; 11 announced (As many as 3 groundbreaking announcements may be made soon).

Dedication scheduled:

155. Hartford Connecticut Temple: Preparing for dedication; dedication scheduled on Sunday November 20, 2016.

Under Construction:

156. Paris France Temple: Interior work underway; open house committee assembled; completion anticipated sometime during the first half of 2017.

157. Meridian Idaho Temple: Adding landscaping structures; installing fence posts and lamp posts; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

158. Cedar City Utah Temple: Installing sprinkler systems and planting bushes; installing window frames and art glass; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

159. Tucson Arizona Temple: Pouring concrete parking lot; adding landscaping structures; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

160. Rome Italy Temple: Interior work progressing; completion anticipated sometime in the first half of 2018.

161. Concepcion Chile Temple: Steeple framework going up; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

162. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple: Main level floors poured; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

163. Durban South Africa Temple: Preparing to pour foundation; laying aggregate for parking; street entrance cut; hydroseeding sloped land; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

164. Barranquilla Colombia Temple: Foundation walls going up; completion anticipated sometime in 2019.

165.  Fortaleza Brazil Temple: Erecting structural framing; completion anticipated sometime in 2019.

166. Lisbon Portugal Temple: Site clearing phase; construction fence erected; concrete bleachers removed; completion anticipated sometime in 2019.

Undergoing Renovation:

8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple: Closed for renovation; finish work underway; resurfacing and restriping parking lot; rededication anticipated sometime during the first half of 2017.

20. Jordan River Utah Temple: Closed for renovation; rededication anticipated sometime in late 2017.

41. Frankfurt Germany Temple: Closed for renovation; rededication anticipated sometime in 2018.

Announced:

167. Winnipeg Manitoba Temple: Permitting phase; temple fireside held September 11, 2016; groundbreaking anticipated in either late 2016 or early 2017.

168. Arequipa Peru Temple: General contractor selected; groundbreaking pending.

169. Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple: Construction preparation phase; plans approved by local government; groundbreaking pending.

170. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

171. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

172. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

173. Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

174. Quito Ecuador Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

175. Harare Zimbabwe Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

176. Belem Brazil Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

177. Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

Key:

Bolded numbers and text denote temples whose numbers already exists (for renovations), or is certain due to a scheduled dedication, as well as information that is certain, such as dedication or groundbreaking dates.

Italicized numbers and text denote temples whose numbers may change based on the order in which future dedications and groundbreakings are scheduled.

Underlined numbers and text denote temples whose numbers may change based on progress towards planning, approval, and groundbreaking.

Red text denotes changes from the last posted temple progress update.

Update on the average ages of the Brethren

Since it has been a couple of weeks since I posted on the average ages of the Brethren, I thought I'd do that with this post, which, if I am correct, would be a great topic for this, my first post in November 2016.

As of this Sunday, November 6, 2016, the average age of the First Presidency will 82.88, with only President Uchtdorf being younger than that average. The average age of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be 74.43, with exactly half each of those twelve being older and younger than the average. The average age of the 15 apostles will be 76.12, with 8 of the 15 apostles being younger than that average. I wanted to also report that the apostle closest to that apostolic average is Elder Quentin L. Cook, who will be 76.16 on Sunday. Just by way of other facts to make your head spin, we have 17 apostles of the 100 called that have lived to be over 90. If the apostles closest to that milestone live that long, the number of nonagenarian apostles will increase to 22 before the 200th anniversary of the Church. It is anyone's guess how many apostles reach that monumental milestone.

The averages mentioned in the paragraph above will be vastly affected by what happens to the face of Church leadership in the next several years. The average age of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and apostles as a group will be lowered if, as I said in the last post, Elder Bednar is added to the First Presidency and a new apostle is called.

Hope you enjoyed this trivia. Thanks for your readership and friendship.