Inside the Mormon Temple
May 28, 2009 by admin
Filed under About Temples
An endowment room in the Oquirrh Temple
Because temples are sacred, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak very little about what goes on inside, people are curious about the rooms and activities inside Mormon temples. Open houses are held before temples are dedicated and sanctified as houses of the Lord. Thousands attend these open houses to tour and learn about Mormon temples. However, many people will never have that opportunity. This article will be a mini-tour of the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Mormon Temple, which opened summer, 2009. We’ll begin outside the temple, at the main entrance.
On the exterior of the temple are engraved the words “Holiness to the Lord.” The gardens are meant to inspire and bless those who walk through them, and anyone is invited to do so. The Lord’s spirit can be felt in these gardens, but even more so inside the temple. Atop the temple spire is a statue of the Angel Moroni. Moroni was the last prophet to write in the Book of Mormon. He visited Joseph Smith as a resurrected being and informed Joseph that the time had fully come when the words of Malachi would be fulfilled; that is, that the hearts of the children would turn to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. This is the purpose of temples: to bind families together for eternity in the kingdom of God.
When one enters the temple, there is a spacious entry area with a waiting room, and sometimes a quiet room where families with young children can wait without disturbing others. There is usually a stairway downstairs to the baptistry from here. As one proceeds to enter the temple, there is a recommend desk, where one’s temple recommend is checked. The recommend is a small slip of paper certifying that the member has been interviewed by his or her bishop and stake president and found worthy to attend the temple. Mormons who are temple-worthy are active in their congregations and serve in their callings (or voluntary service positions) as they are asked by their leaders. They pay a full tithe (10% of one’s income) and live the “Word of Wisdom” by avoiding the use of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, and tea. They are morally clean and honest in their dealings with their fellow men.
As one passes by the recommend desk, there is usually another waiting area. Past this area are dressing rooms (one for men and one for women), a “family file” office to help visitors with preparing family names for temple ordinances, and a desk with temple clothing available to those who need it. In all these areas, there are temple workers dressed in white, who volunteer their time to help the patrons (members) who come to the temple.
When a patron arrives to perform an “endowment,” he or she goes first to the dressing room to change into white clothing, and then to an endowment room, which is like a very small auditorium. There, the story of the creation is recounted and instruction is given to enable those attending to feel God’s love and empowering spirit in their lives. Those taking part make covenants to keep the commandments of God and to follow the Savior Jesus Christ.
Sometimes endowment rooms, sealing rooms and offices are upstairs, and there is a staircase (and elevators) for access to those rooms. An endowment session takes about 90 minutes, and in most temples a session begins every 30 minutes. This depends on how many patrons typically attend, and how many endowment rooms there are. Some temples open very early in the morning to accommodate patrons’ schedules, and some even stay open very late at night on occasion.
Endowment room
This photograph is taken from the front of an endowment room. An officiator stands behind the altar, facing the seated patrons. Behind him is a small movie screen for instructional purposes, and a curtain, through which one may enter the celestial room of the temple. Entering the celestial room is the culmination of the endowment, and is symbolic of entering the kingdom of God.
The celestial room is traditionally the most beautiful room in the temple. There, patrons can sit and pray or meditate. The spirit in the celestial room is the most peaceful, tranquil, and holy of any place on earth.
Baptism for the Dead
Oquirrh Temple Baptistry
People who arrive prepared to do baptisms for the dead, go downstairs to the baptistry. The baptistry has its own recommend desk. Children over 12 years old can participate in this ordinance by acting as proxies for their deceased ancestors. They receive “limited-use recommends” from their bishops to gain entrance to the baptistry. A recommend to enter the baptistry therefore might not qualify a patron to enter the main parts of the temple.
The baptismal font is usually below ground, because baptism by immersion represents death and rebirth. Patrons change into white baptismal clothing in the baptistry dressing rooms. The baptismal font is designed according to ancient temple custom, upon the backs of twelve oxen, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Weddings
Weddings are performed in Mormon temples, but the vows are not “’till death do us part.” Temple “sealings,” as they are called, are meant to be eternal. Temple weddings are very beautiful. The bride and groom make an appointment to have their sealing ceremony performed. Temples have more than one sealing room, and they vary in size, so it’s necessary to reserve one that will accommodate all the guests. Guests who wish to attend temple sealings must also have temple recommends to attend. Guests wear Sunday-best clothes and are ushered into a marriage waiting room prior to the ceremony.
Oquirrh Temple Sealing Room
When the bride and groom enter the temple, they are greeted and given instruction by a member of the temple presidency. Then, they are guided to special dressing rooms. The bride’s dressing room is especially lovely. There, she dons the dress she’ll wear for the sealing ceremony. Some brides choose to wear a wedding dress for the sealing, while others wear a more simple white dress. The bride can leave her street clothes and cosmetics in the dressing room.
After the sealing, the bride and groom return to their dressing rooms. If the bride has chosen to wear a simpler dress for the sealing, she now changes into her bridal gown for photographs. This is also the case if the bride has chosen a gown that is not pure white. She wears a white dress for the sealing and then changes into her gown for photographs and the reception. The family goes outside to wait for the bride and groom to exit the temple. The family then gathers for photographs in the temple gardens. It’s a festive occasion for everyone.
For information and Mormon news about the dedication of the San Salvador El Salvador Mormon Temple visit the official newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”)
Alphabetical List 2
April 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples by Country
Alphabetical list
Other lists: Geographical - Chronological
Temples
A-D E-H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Aba Nigeria
Baton Rouge Louisiana
Calgary Alberta
Colonia Juárez Chiuahua México
Dallas Texas
Edmonton Alberta
Frankfurt Germany
Gila Valley Arizona
Hague Netherlands
Trujillo Peru Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in South America
On 13 December 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) announced that it will build a temple in Trujillo, Peru. The temple will be located at Teodoro Valcárcel, Urbanización Primavera, Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru. This location already has a stake center on the site. The site is located near the prominent Campo Eterno cemetery, on the highway to Huanchaco. This will be the second LDS temple in Peru.
Members in the Trujillo area must travel 9-10 hours to reach the existing temple in Lima. Some days, the Lima Temple is so busy, that patrons patiently wait for hours before being able to enter.
Elder Rafael E. Pino of the Seventy conducted groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Trujillo Peru Temple, on Saturday, September 17, 2011. The second LDS temple in Peru (the Lima Peru Temple was dedicated in 1986), it will serve more than 88,000 LDS Church members in the area.
Rome Italy Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in Europe
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it would build a temple in Rome, Italy. The site ison nearly fifteen acres located at 376 Via di Settebagni. This site is on the outskirts of the city in the picturesque countryside near a freeway exchange.
Originally, trenches were dug every 10 to 15 feet across the property, since construction could not continue if Roman ruins were discovered. Latter-day Saints in the area held a special fast in the hope that the site (which the Church purchased in the 1990’s) would be free of antiquities. No antiquities were discovered anywhere on the 15 acres, yet a Roman village was discovered just 100 yards beyond the property’s boundary.
The Rome Italy Temple will be the first temple in Italy and in the Mediterranean region. For years, Italian Saints have traveled the long distance to the Bern Switzerland Temple, which now serves more stakes and districts from Italy than from any other country. The temple will be the twelfth built in Europe.
The first Mormon missionariesarrived in Italy in the 1850’s, including Lorenzo Snow, future prophet of the Church. The early converts (slightly over 200) emigrated to the United States, and the mission was closed. Attempts to obtain permission for missionaries to come again to Italy were rebuffed by the Italian government in 1900. The Church was finally reestablished in 1951, and the Church has made a movie about the first convert, Vincenzo di Francesca, who found a charred Book of Mormon in a trash bin. It was missing its cover and title page, so at first, he had no idea what he was reading. Italians who had converted outside of Italy returned to the country. In 1964, there were over 200 members in Italy.
Missionaries were again allowed to proselyte in Italy in 1965. Today, there are about 23,000 members in the country. The Church is hoping to gain government approval granted to the Catholic Church and others. Signed by the prime minister in 2007, the “concordate” must still be approved by parliament.
Construction of the Temple Proceeds
Construction began in Rome for the new Latter-day Saint temple, when Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with Church and local community leaders, participated in the traditional groundbreaking ceremony for the temple on 23 October 2010.
“My heart is filled with gratitude,” said President Monson as he addressed the 500 guests in attendance. “Members throughout Italy, and the entire Mediterranean area, will be able to come here.”
*See this website dedicated solely to the Rome Italy Mormon Temple.
Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in America
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the construction of a new temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is assumed that the Church will follow the pattern it has established for temple building in downtown areas of large cities, such as Hong Kong and New York City, and that the temple will be a multi-level building with offices and a visitors’ center on the lower floors and ordinance rooms on the top floors.
This will be the first LDS temple to be built in Pennsylvania.
Several significant events in Church history took place in Pennsylvania including much of the translation of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of priesthood authority. The Church was first established in Pennsylvania in 1839—growing to 450 members by October 1840. Membership fell following the migration of the Saints to Salt Lake but grew again as Mormon European emigrants arrived. Eventually the first stake was organized in 1960 with 1,100 members located in congregations in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Today there are nearly 48,000 members in Pennsylvania alone who will use the Philly Mormon Temple (LDS Newsroom, October, 2008).
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the site for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. The specific location is 1739 Vine Street in downtown Philadelphia.
The site is adjacent to the Vine Street Expressway and neighboring Courts Building and situated diagonally across the street from Logan Square, a prominent Philadelphia landmark.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple took place on Saturday, September 17, 2011—the 224th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Attendance at the temple site was by invitation only. The event warranted a long story in the Philadelphia Enquirer.
Construction Status
Full-scale construction of the temple is expected to begin in the spring of 2012 with completion in 2014. [1]
External Links
*To see a website dedicated solely to the Philly Temple, click here.
For more information on temples, see: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/temples
To read the original press release, see: newsroom.lds.org
After dispute, Philadelphia temple site is approved.
Kansas City Missouri Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in America
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the construction of a new temple in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. The temple will be located southwest of the intersection of I-435 and Shoal Creek Parkway. The site is in a beautiful mixed development owned by the Church in northeast Kansas City, just west of the Liberty Jail Historic Site. The temple is expected to be similar in design to the recently dedicated Twin Falls Idaho Temple and to be completed in about three years.
In the early years of the Church, Mormons had attempted to build two temples in Missouri, one in Far West and one in Independence. Both attempts were thwarted by mob violence against the Mormons.
Mormons had also settled in Kansas, but they left when the Church relocated its headquarters to Nauvoo, Illinois, and then to Salt Lake City, Utah. Church members are now found in every major city in the Midwest. Kansas City’s first stake was established in 1956. Today there are approximately 100,000 members in Missouri and Kansas organized into 21 stakes where the Church has one operating temple in St. Louis, Missouri.
Updates
The Kansas City Missouri Mormon Temple sits on just over eight acres and is 32,000 square feet. The groundbreaking and site dedication were held on 8 May 2010 and conducted by Ronald A. Rasband of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The public was invited to visit the temple during an open house from Saturday, 7 April 2012, until Saturday, 21 April 2012, excluding Sundays. During the open house, there is no charge to tour the temple, but tickets could be obtained from kansascitymormontemple.org. The temple was scheduled to be formally dedicated on Sunday, 6 May 2012, in three sessions. The dedicatory sessions are broadcast to congregations of the Church within the temple district. Those in the temple district who witness the dedicatory sessions via closed circuit television do so in selected meetinghouses, and through an interview with their bishop or one of his counselors to determine their worthiness, present a conditional recommend to do so.
In conjunction with the dedication of the temple, a cultural celebration featuring music and dance was scheduled for Saturday, 5 May 2012, and held at the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Elder William Walker of the Seventy (General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ) led VIP visitors on a tour of the temple, including the Governors of both Missouri and Kansas. These governors issued special proclamations of congratulations on the building of the temple. The governor of Missouri also admitted to the mistreatment of Mormons as they were oppressed and driven out in 1838-1839 and called the dedication of the Kansas City Missouri Temple a time for healing in the state. He offered his congratulations and welcome to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be carried to the First Presidency of the Church in Salt Lake City by Elder Walker.
Click here to read the proclamations from the governors of Kansas and Missouri.
An Episcopal Priest attended the open house. Click here to read her impressions.
The address of the Kansas City Missouri Temple is 7001 Searcy Creek Parkway, Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
Cordoba Argentina Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in South America
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) announced the construction of a new temple in Córdoba, Argentina. The new temple will be located in Villa Belgrano next to the Church mission home, and will be Argentina’s second temple.
Members in the Córdoba area currently travel some 400 miles to participate in temple ordinances in the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, which serves 60 stakes and 30 districts throughout Argentina.
Membership of the Church in Argentina has grown steadily since the 1920’s. The first members were European immigrants who requested missionaries. There were 356, 000 Mormons in Argentina in 2006.
Calgary Alberta Mormon Temple
April 6, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in Canada
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) announced that a new temple will be built in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The new temple will be located at the northeast corner of Royal Oak Rd NW and Rocky Ridge Rd NW, Calgary, on a site purchased by the Church about four years ago. There are over 18,000 members of the Church in Calgary.
The Tuscany/Royal Oak train station will be within walking distance of the temple and will be completed in 2011, about the same time as the temple is due to be completed. The Calgary Alberta Temple will be Canada’s eighth temple and Alberta’s third.
Mormons first began to settle in southern Alberta in the 1880s as contract workers on the Canadian Pacific Railroad and as farmers in present-day Cardston. By 1895, the first stake in Alberta was established, and membership in the Church has continued to thrive ever since. Today there are over 75,000 members throughout the province (LDS Newsroom, Oct, 2008).
The groundbreaking for the temple was held on May 15, 2010.
Phoenix Arizona Mormon Temple
April 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in America
Plans to build a new temple in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, were announced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) on 24 May 2008. Though preliminary plans for the architecture of this temple have been drawn up, no location has been formally announced. However, local wards conjecture that the chosen location is in northwest Phoenix, on Pinnacle Peak Road, where the Church has purchased property.
The announcement came less than a month following the announcement that temples would be built in Gilbert, Arizona, and in Arizona’s Gila Valley. A temple in Phoenix will decrease travel time for members in the northern and western areas of Phoenix, who currently attend the Mesa Arizona Temple, which serves 74 stakes throughout much of the state. The Mesa temple is attended by more patrons than any other temple outside of Utah.
In late summer 2010, The Church announced redesign plans for the temple. The new design lowers the building by 6 feet, meaning the temple will be 30 feet high. In turn, the church spire will be 90 feet high. The previously proposed plan had a 40 foot building with an 86 foot spire, but neighbors complained that the building would block their view of the mountains.
Once the church receives the necessary permits, construction will take about two years.
Updates
The LDS Church announced in March 2011 that work on the temple would begin that month. [1] Phoenix Arizona Temple will be a 58,000-square-foot, 30-foot-tall, single-story building with a basement. The site is at 5220 W. Pinnacle Peak Road, next to the Church’s existing meetinghouse. The city issued permits for vegetation removal, construction of a temporary parking lot, fencing and drainage early in March. The Mormon congregation that meets in the existing chapel on the building site was moved to a Glendale facility to avoid parking problems while the temple is under construction. The congregation consists of 180 families. Neighbors have been protesting the construction plans, due to concerns over adequate parking, increase of traffic, night lighting, and the height of the spire. The protests have delayed construction by about a year.
More information: LDS Church Temples.com
Adequate parking at the Phoenix Temple?
Gilbert Arizona Mormon Temple
April 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Temples in America
The announcement that a new temple would be constructed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilbert, Arizona, USA, was made on 26 April 2008. The Gilbert Mormon temple will be located at the Southeast corner of Greenfield Road and Pecos Road, Gilbert, on a 10-acre parcel of land.
The design of the temple is expected to be similar to that of the Twin Falls, Idaho temple. Discussions took place as to what sort of land use will surround the temple, since prior plans included recreational facilities not in keeping with the sacred nature of the temple. The Church prefers residential or peaceful commercial zoning.
This temple, and the one under construction in Gila Valley, are meant to take the pressure off the two temples already existing in Arizona, in Mesa and Snowflake.
Located in the fast-growing Southeast Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area—just south of Mesa—Gilbert and its surrounding communities enjoy a high concentration of Church members, who currently attend the Mesa Arizona Temple, which serves currently serves 74 stakes throughout much of Arizona. The edifice will make the sacred ordinances of the temple more accessible to the members of these communities. There are about 380,000 Latter-day Saints in Arizona.
Site and building plans for the Gilbert Arizona Temple went before the Town of Gilbert Design Review Board for preliminary evaluation. Please follow this link to view an informative staff report.
The plans for the temple were revealed in June of 2010. “…the 83,000-square-foot temple will use ivory-colored stone and concrete and feature leaded-glass windows. A 195-foot spire will rise from the center of the three-story structure, capped by a gold-plated statue of a trumpeting angel, a trademark symbol of Mormon temples.” Pre-constuction began immediately after the plans were released and approved.
The groundbreaking for the temple took place on Saturday, November 13, 2010. The temple should take about two years to complete.
Updates:
In mid-February 2012 the construction of the Gilbert Arizona Temple reached an exciting milestone with the installation of the spire framework, taking the temple to its full height minus the height of the angel Moroni statue, which will cap the spire.
More information: LDS Church Temples.com
