Temple Site Possibilities: North America Northeast Area

Hello again, everyone! Since I have time to do so tonight, I am back to talk about the current temples within the North America Northeast Area of the Church, and to share my thoughts about where future temples may be built within that same area. With 12 temples in operation in that area (one of which, the Washington D. C. Temple, will close to begin its renovation process on the same day the Jordan River Utah Temple is rededicated (May 20, 2018)), there are no temples announced or under construction within that area. As I begin this post, I have only one other candidate for a temple within that area, but if I see any promising prospects as I talk about the current temple district, I will add them to my list as I go. With that said, let's dive right in to the discussion of the temples in this area.

There are, as mentioned above, 12 temples in the North America Northeast Area. I will be listing them in alphabetical order, with the Canadian temples within that area listed first, and the US temples in that area after that. If any US state or Canadian territory or province has more than one temple, I will be grouping them together.

The three Canadian temples within the borders of this area are as follows: Halifax Nova Scotia, Montreal Quebec, and Toronto Ontario. The other nine temples within that area (that are in the US) are Boston Massachusetts, Columbus Ohio, Detroit Michigan, Hartford Connecticut, Indianapolis Indiana, Manhattan and Palmyra New York, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and Washington D. C. Which regions are covered within each of these districts, and how many stakes are covered within them? Let's talk next about that.

Again, beginning in Canada, we first turn our attention to the temple in Halifax Nova Scotia. That temple district covers one stake each in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and the three branches of the Church in Newfoundland. The Montreal Quebec Temple district takes in 4 stakes, 3 of which are in Montreal, with 1 other in Eastern Ontario. The Toronto Ontario Temple district is comprised of 8 stakes and 1 district in Ontario. As previously noted, the smaller Canadian temple districts seem to have Canada fairly well covered with its current temples.

Moving on now to the United States, the Boston Massachusetts Temple district is comprised of 12 stakes, with 5 of those in Massachusetts, 3 in New Hampshire, 2 in Maine, and 1 each in Rhode Island and Vermont.

Next is the Columbus Ohio Temple, which has in its district 16 stakes, 13 of which are in Ohio, with two from Western Pennsylvania (based in Pittsburgh), and 1 in the Southwestern region of West Virginia (Charleston).

The Detroit Michigan Temple district is comprised of 7 stakes and 1 district, all of which are located in Michigan. The Hartford Connecticut Temple district covers 5 stakes in total: 3 in Connecticut, 2 in Eastern New York, and 1 in Western Massachusetts. As for the Indianapolis Indiana Temple, that district covers 9 stakes, 8 in Indiana and 1 in Eastern Illinois.

Turning now to Manhattan New York, that temple district is comprised of 8 stakes in Downstate New York, and 4 in North Jersey. Just as the temple in Manhattan serves New York's Downstate region, the Upstate in New York is served by the Palmyra Temple, which serves 7 stakes and 1 district within that region.

Rounding out the US temples in this area are the Philadelphia Pennsylvania and Washington D. C. Temples. The Philly Temple district covers 7 stakes in Eastern Pennsylvania and two each in Central and South Jersey and Delaware, for a total of 11 stakes. As for Washington D. C., the temple named for the capital of the United States covers 23 stakes in Virginia, 8 in West Virginia, 8 others in Maryland, 3 in Pennsylvania and 2 in West Virginia.

Most of these temple districts seem very reasonably sized to me. I ran the mileage on some of them, and particularly for the smaller states in this area, there don't seem to be any inordinate distances for the members of the Church to travel in order to reach their assigned temple. That said, the one exception I have come up with is Virginia.

A while back on this blog, when I first started sharing my thoughts on future temple locations, I went back and forth for a while on a temple for Virginia, and many people suggested several excellent candidate cities for such a temple. But after doing the research on it, I agree with the many experts on temple matters with whom I have consulted: if and when Virginia does get a temple, the most likely location for it is Richmond.

I imagine that if a temple were built there, it could cover the needs of the Saints in Virginia and West Virginia, at minimum, which would slightly draw at least a few stakes from the surrounding temple districts. If Richmond does get a temple, then the North America Northeast Area may be well stocked with temples for the immediate future.

But that is merely my own opinion. Let me know your thoughts. Have I overlooked anything? Is it reasonable to assume that Richmond is likely to get a temple? I look forward to hearing from any of you that would like to share your opinion.

That does it for this post. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Temple Site Possibilities: North America Central Area, Part Two--Potential Future Temples

Hello again, everyone! Having set the background in my previous post for what the current temple districts in the North America Central Area cover, we now turn our attention to potential future temples. The possibilities I will suggest mainly qualify for a temple due to the distances involved from their currently assigned temples.

While again bearing in mind that the US in general is going through a period of stagnated growth, I have felt that we could see temples announced very soon in the following locations within the North America Central Area: Missoula Montana, Green Bay Wisconsin, and Rapid City South Dakota.  Let's talk a bit about each.

I have previously referenced the fact that I heard from someone that a temple had been publicly proposed for Missoula by Elder David A. Bednar last year or the year before. While I have not been able to verify that, I do know that the Missoula Saints, who are assigned currently to the Spokane Washington Temple (which is not within the same geographical area of the Church) travel a distance of 197.3 miles. I would think that since that is just short of President Monson's stated goal to have every member within 200 miles of a temple, Missoula would qualify for its own temple in that regard. When we add the public proposal in, that makes a Missoula temple seem even more likely.

Next, we move on to Wisconsin. When I was originally considering a temple for that state, I was absolutely convinced that Milwaukee would be the best place for it. After all, 2 of the 6 stakes in that state are based in Milwaukee, the capital city.

(Correction, added on Christmas Day 2017: As was rightly observed in the comments for this post, and as I already knew very well, Madison is Wisconsin's capital city, NOT Milwaukee as asserted in the paragraph above. As I also explained in my response to that correction, my wife and I have spent a majority of this month not feeling well, and in my case, battling the illness has not been at times very conducive to allowing me to express myself as clearly and correctly as I normally try to do so. So to twinnumerouno, I again offer my thanks for the correction, and to all of you, I offer an apology for this error. I will do everything within my power to prevent such errors going forward. Thanks for understanding)

But then several people pointed out that the Green Bay area of Wisconsin was more likely to be the best location for a temple in Wisconsin. Subsequent personal study on my part verified that completely. Saints in the Green Bay area currently fall under the Chicago Illinois district, and the distance between the two cities is 208.7. According to President Monson's goal, Green Bay qualifies for its own temple.

Finally, we move on to South Dakota. A temple in that state could rise in Rapid City. I favor this location for a couple of reasons. My dad served his mission there, and beyond that, the Saints in South Dakota travel 300.7 miles to their assigned temple in Bismarck.

These are the possibilities I came up with, and the reasons behind them. Feel free to "sound off" in the comments below with any I have missed, or if any of you feel that I should eliminate any of these. That does it for this post. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Temple Site Possibilities: North America Central Area--Part One--Current Temple Districts

Hello again, everyone! I thought I would take some time right now to continue my series of posts about temple possibilities by putting together some thoughts about the North America Central Area. Because there are 14 temples currently operating within that area, with 1 more (the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple) that has been announced and is awaiting full-scale construction efforts to begin: that is anticipated to happen sometime during April or May next year. As I said yesterday in my preliminary post about the areas of the Church that cover North America, the US has entered a period of nationwide stagnated growth, with the exception of the strongholds comprising the "Mormon corridor"

I also wanted to reiterate what I said yesterday in my post about the North America Areas: that the one difficulty with those areas is that the boundary lines for the areas do not correspond with those for the state, province, and territorial boundaries within the US and Canada. That said, the temple district boundaries in the North America Central area are fairly specific in what is covered. When I get to my next post (which will discuss the temple possibilities I see for this area), I may have possibilities listed that are not actually part of that area because of the existing boundaries. Just wanted to note that before I go any further.

Now, let's dive right in to talking about the 15 temples in the North America Central Area, including what each of those 15 temple districts cover. I will follow this post up with another one later today or sometime tomorrow that will go into specifics about the future possibilities I see for this area. There are three of them, and I will explain those choices in that next post.

The 15 temples falling within the North America Central Area are as follows (note that I am listing the Canadian temples before the US ones, and that if a province, territory or state has more than one, they are all listed in a group): Calgary, Cardston, and Edmonton Alberta;  Regina Saskatchewan; Winnipeg Manitoba; Billings Montana; Bismarck North Dakota; Chicago and Nauvoo Illinois; Denver and Fort Collins Colorado; Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri; St. Paul Minnesota; and Winter Quarters Nebraska.

Let's talk briefly about each of those temple districts. We begin in Canada, where we turn our focus first to Alberta, which has three temples total, in Calgary, Cardston, and Edmonton. In addition to the three temples, Alberta has two missions of the Church (in Calgary and Edmonton) and 25 stakes, which are further divided into 191 wards and 33 branches, for a total of 224 congregations.

In terms of each of the three districts, I have found out the following information: the Calgary Alberta Temple only covers the 7 stakes within that province. As for the Cardston Temple district, it is comprised of the 15 stakes within southern Alberta, northern Montana, and the British Colombian Rockies. One of the future temple possibilities I will discuss in my next post would draw away some stakes from this temple district.  And the Edmonton Temple district is made up of the 7 stakes in Central and Northern Alberta.

Next, the Regina Saskatchewan Temple serves the Saints within the two stakes of the Church in Saskatchewan and the one that is located in Winnipeg. The Manitoba Saints currently have to journey to the Regina Saskatchewan Temple to worship, a distance of 355.9 miles. So it would seem that the announcement of the Winnipeg Temple was mostly (if not entirely) motivated by a desire to provide those Saints a temple in their midst.

We now turn our attention to the US temples within this area. The Billings Montana Temple serves 7 stakes in Billings and the surrounding regions of Montana and 4 stakes in Wyoming. The Bismarck North Dakota Temple serves Saints in the 4 stakes and 1 district in both North and South Dakota.

In Illinois, there are two temples currently, one in Chicago, and one in Nauvoo. The Chicago Temple serves a total of 14 stakes, 7 in Northern Illinois, 5 in Wisconsin, one in Northern Indiana, and one in Southwestern Michigan. As for the Nauvoo Temple, its district takes in 5 stakes in Eastern Iowa and West Central Illinois.

Next, as mentioned above, we  come to Colorado. The Denver temple serves those Saints that are in 19 stakes, 18 in Colorado, and one in Western Kansas. The Fort Collins Temple serves the 13 stakes found within Northern Colorado and Southeastern Wyoming.

Turning now to Missouri, the two temples in the state are located in Kansas City and St. Louis. The Kansas City temple serves those Saints within the 10 stakes in Western Missouri, and Northeastern Kansas. The St. Louis Missouri Temple district is comprised of 10 stakes, 8 in Eastern Missouri, and 2 in Southern Illinois

The St. Paul Temple district serves 8 stakes in Minnesota, 1 in Wisconsin, and 1 district in Northwestern Ontario. The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple serves a total of 10 stakes, 5 of which are in Iowa, 4 of which are in Nebraska, and the last of which is in Southeastern South Dakota.

Again, this is just a very general overview of the current temple districts to set the background for my next post, in which I will discuss the prospects I see for future temples within this area. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.