BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: First Presidency Announces Additional Temple Reopenings

Note: This post was originally published at 9:29 AM, with additional analysis added at arund noon MDT.

Hello again, everyone! As reported by the Newsroom and corroborated through the Church News main article and temple status tracker, the First Presidency has announced information on temple reopenings that will take effect in the next few weeks. In view of my not feeling well earlier today, I have had to defer analysis on these developments to now. So let's go into detail about the changes reported today.

On May 3 (one week from today), the Lisbon Portugal Temple will move to phase 2, allowing all living ordinances where proper COVID-19 protocols are followed. The priority will be given first to living husband-and-wife sealings where both are previously endowed, then to living ordinances for those preparing to be married who have not been previously endowed, then to those already out in the mission field who commenced their service prior to being able to receive their own endowments, then to those prosepctive missionaries planning to enter the field soon who need to receive their own endowment, then to anyone else who may need to receive their own endowments for any otheer reason.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Missouri and Londoon and Preston England temples are set to transition from phase 2 to phase 3 in two weeks (on Monday May 10). Phase 3 allows the performance of all living ordinances in the same priority order as phase 2, but also allows ordinance work to be done for the dead on an appointment-based schedule, with constraints and protocols in place for the safety of all who worship at the temple. Members living within the districts for any of these temples can schedule proxy ordinance work through the Church's online scheduling for each of these temples.

If these were the only updates for this week, that would be tremendous enough, but there's more to report here as well. Also on May 10, the Church has noted that 27 more temples will transition to phase 2-B. That phase allows living ordinances in the same priority order as other phase 2 temples, but it also opens the baptistries in certain temples for scheduled proxy work. Among those 27 temples opening in phase 2-B on May 10 are the following, sorted by the geographical area of the Church under which they fall: 

Caribbean: Port-au-Prince Haiti

Central America: Panama City Panama; Tegucigalpa Honduras<

Mexico: Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tampico, and Veracruz

North America Central: Nauvoo Illinois

North America Northeast: Indianapolis Indiana

North America Southeast: Atlanta Georgia, Birmingham Alabama, Columbia South Carolina, Louisville Kentucky, Raleigh North Carolina

North America Southwest: All 4 Texas Temples (Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, and San Antonio); Oklahoma City Oklahoma

North America West: All 7 temples in California (Fresno, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego)

Philippines: Cebu City

Aside from these reopening updates, the Church announced today as well that 2 temples that had reached phase 3 (Halifax Nova Scotia and Suva Fiji) are having their reopenings paused due to COVID-19 regulations and governmental restrictions.

As of next Monday (May 3), the Church will have 8 temples closed for major renovations (3 of which, Mesa Arizona, Salt Lake, and St. George Utah, allow for phase 2-B scheduling at nearby temples for those within those temple districts); 1 temple (Kyiv Ukraine) which has not yet reopened at all since last year's closure of all operating temples; 12 temples paused in their reopenings (2 in phase 3, 9 in phase 2, and 1 in phase 1); 4 temples remaining in phase 1; 67 in phase 2; 52 in phase 2-B; and the remaining 24 in phase 3. One week after that (on Monday May 10), with the additional changes noted, while the other data noted above will not change, there will then be 27 temples open in phase 3 and 76 others in phase 2-B, which will then leave 40 temples in phase 2.I am grateful to have been able to learn of these updates and to have passed them along to you all here. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to pass those along to you all as I become aware of them.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Announces 2021 Area Leadership Assignments

Note: This post was initially published on April 21, 2021 at 9:47 AM, with subsequent updates added thereunto at roughly 2:15 PM.

Hello again, everyone! As reported by both the Church News and the Newsroom, the First Presidency has announced the changes in area leadership that will become effective on August 1. Although it escaped my notice at the time I originally posted content about those changes this morning, it appears that the Church News report was actually shared today, and that the Newsroom report may hve been retroactively dated two days ago (April 19). 

As announced during the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference, Elders Robert C. Gay and Terence M. Vinson will be released from the Presidency of the Seventy, with Elders Paul V. Johnson and S. Mark Palmer filling the resulting vacancies. That, in turn, may necessitate a change in the Commissioner of Church Education (unless the Church asks Elder Johnson to continue to serve in that capacity while serving in the Presidency of the Seventy), and it also obviously necessitated a change in the Africa South Area Presidency.

I have taken time to analyze the changes in two different ways. And I am pleased at this time to present those two forms of analysis. The first shows an alphabetical list of all the general authority seventies (along with the two area seventies) who are mentioned by name in this year's area assignments. And the scond document shows the changes to each area presidency, with those areas listed in alphabetical order.

Aside from that information, the documents (and the applicable changes) largely speak for themselves. If any of you have any questions on those documents, feel free to ask about that here. In the meantime, I continue to monitor all Church news updates and reported temple developments, and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all here as I become aware thereof.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Location Confirmed and Rendering Released for the Helena Montana Temple

Hello again, everyone! When 20 new temples were announced in General Conference a couple of weeks ago, I had personally theorized that most of those would be smaller temples, for which approvals could move quickly and official information might come down the pike more quickly than their recently-announced counterparts. But even in view of that statement, I couldn't imagine how quickly that would start occurring.

The site location has been confimed and the rendering released for the Helena Montana Temple. The single-story temple will be approximately 10,000 square feet in area, with single central spire. The chosen site is located at 1260 Otter Road in Helena, and the temple will be built on 4.8 acres of land. Project leaders have begun working with city leaders through the approvals process. A groundbreaking date will be set once the appropriate approvals are granted.

Given the quick turnaround for this temple, I'd anticipate a groundbreaking in mid-2021 or mid-to-late 2021 at latest. And if the other 19 temples are similarly-sized, official information could be released for quite a few of those in the future as well. I'd also anticipate work will continue to be done to clear temples that have been in the queue for a while. This is a tremendous development, and I'm grateful to have been able to learn about it and pass it along to you all here.

I continue to monitor all temple developments and Church news updates and will be sure to bring word of those to you all here as I become aware of it.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

POTENTIAL BREAKING NEWS: Preliminary Information Unofficially Revealed About the Russia Temple?

Hello again, everyone! In several previous posts (and various comment threads thereof this year and last year), I had mentioned several temples on which I was keeping my eyes for more offical information. For most of those temples, I listed them by their specific names. But I also mentioned that at least one of the temples for which extensive delays in the approvals process were anticipated was on my watchlist for more information in the near term. I didn't identify that temple by name at any point in recent mentions because I didn't have anything official to pass along about that

Fast forward to a short time ago. I have periodically checked the Church's official temple list for any information that has not otherwise been officially confirmed, and I felt impressed to check that again within the last half-hour. I pulled up the list of 48 announced temples. At my last check, that list had not included the 20 new temples announced by President Nelson almost two weeks ago. But when I checked it today, not only were all 48 announced temples listed, but where it had previously listed the Russia Temple, there is now text that reads "Russia Administration Building".

The text for that entry on the list of temples potentially gives us more details on the temple planned for Russia than we've had since that prospect was first announced in General Conference 3 years or so ago. And it suggests to me that perhaps the Church will be successful in getting approval for a Russian mulltipurpose building that includes the temple perhaps more swiftly that would be true if the temple was the only thing planned.

And with the headquarters of the Europe East Area being Moscow Russia, I could see a scenario where the Church takes a similar approach to doing in Russia what has been done previously in Tokyo Japan and what is being planned for Shanghai China, where a multipurpose building would serve as a home base for the area and mission offices, for meetinghouse spaces, and for rooms that could be used for temple worship.

I need to be very clear here that this is no more and no less than a hypothetical theory on my part based on what I'm seeing on the page where the announced temples are listed. It could just as easily be true that the name or specification here is a placeholder, and/or that there will be more work ahead for the Church to do in order to get the temple (and anything else in Russia) approved. When official information is released, that will be the confirmation of the details which are currently lacking.

If nothing else, at least it's a working theory based on what I am seeing on that list, and what I have heard from a couple of sources on my end. I will be most intrigued to see what happens in terms of temple developments in the days, weeks, and months ahead, even if the theory I have posited here turns out to be misguided or ill-conceived on my part. Stay tuned for more informaiton on this (and any other Church news or temple developments) as I become aware of those.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreaking Set for Tallahasse Florida Temple

 Hello again, everyone! Within the last half hour, breaking temple news has been reported. I have previously mentioned that the smaller US temples generally get more swift approval than their international counterparts. The breaking news relates to one of those small temples. Groundbreaking arrangements have been announced for the Tallahassee Florida Temple. The groundbreaking is set to take place in June. As hax been the case with all groundbreakings held during the COVID-19 pandemic, only a general window has been set for the groundbreaking.

That event will occur sometime in June. I believe this marks the first time since the Hinckley-era smaller temples were bu8ilt that more than one temple groundbreaking occcurred in June. Elder James B. Martino, the President of the North America Southeast Area, will preside at that groundbreaking, with COVID-19 protocols leading to a limited in-person attendance. It will be interesting to see when exactly in June that groundbreaking occurs, since the Syracuse Utah Temple groundbreaking is also set to occcur that month.

Based on the temple's previously-announced location, size, and rendering, I imagine that, at most, the temple will take roughly 2-2.5 years to complete. Coverage on this morning's announcement was also shared in the Church News. Full disclosure here: I honestly wasn't expecting the announcement on the Tallahassee Florida Temple to be the next announced groundbreaking. 

Based on the information I had as recently as last night, I was anticipating the next groundbreakings announced would be, in any order, for the Lindon Utah and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temples, along with potentia announcemnts for the Pago Pago American Samoa and Neiafu Tonga Temples, before Tallahassee would even be on the horizon.

That being said, I am grateful the Lord continues to prove that His ways and thoughts are higher than mine. And the previous opinons I offered were always subect to official confirmation, clarification, or correction by the Brethren when official announcements come down the pike. With all of that being said, I'm grateful to have learned of this news and to be able to pass it along to you all here.

I continue to monitor all other Church news and temple updates, and will bring you all word of those as I become aware thereof. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.