Durban South Africa Temple
October 3, 2011 by gale
Filed under Temples in Africa
At the 181st semi-annual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Prophet Thomas S. Monson announced the construction of a new Mormon temple in Durban, South Africa. This will be the second temple for South Africa. The Johannesburg, South Africa temple was dedicated in 1985.
The first missionaries to South Africa arrived in April 1853, and in August, the first congregation was organized four miles from Cape Town. Two years later, there were three congregations totaling nearly 130 members. Missionaries were not sent to South Africa from 1865 to 1903 because of government restrictions and the inability to speak the Afrikaans language. A few years after missionaries returned to South Africa, the first Church building was built in Mowbray in 1916-17.
An area conference was held for the first time in October 1978, attended by 3,450 of the 7,200 members living in South Africa, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and South West Africa (Namibia). In February 1992, another conference was held in Johannesburg with 4,200 in attendance. In February 1996, another regional conference had more than 5,000 in attendance. Today, members of all origins work together to overcome cultural barriers that have been prevalent in South African society. There are around 55,000 Latter-day Saints in South Africa of all races. The LDS Church does not segregate races in congregations or in the temples.
For information and Mormon news about the other temples that have just been announced visit the newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”)
