Jacksonville Florida Temple
The Jacksonville Florida Temple is the Church's fifth temple to be announced or dedicated in Florida following the Orlando Florida Temple (dedicated in 1994), the Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple (dedicated in 2014), the Tallahassee Florida Temple (announced in 2020), and the Tampa Florida Temple (announced in April 2022). Jacksonville has long been a site included on my temple predictions map due to distance to the nearest temple in Orlando. The new temple will likely include six stakes (five in Florida, one in Georgia). The Church organized its first stake in Jacksonville in 1947, and there are four stakes in the Jacksonville metropolitan (if the Kingsland Georgia Stake is included). Church growth in the Jacksonville area has been slow in recent years with only one new stake created in the past 20 years (Jacksonville Florida South Stake in 2009).
Grand Rapids Michigan Temple
The Grand Rapids Michigan Temple is the Church's second temple in Michigan following the dedication of the Detroit Michigan Temple in 1999. The new temple will likely have five stakes (four in Michigan, one in Indiana) and one district within the temple district. The Lansing Michigan Stake (organized in 1962) is the oldest stake in the likely temple district. Only one new stake has been organized in the Grand Rapids area within the past 40 years - the Holland Michigan Stake in 2022.
Prosper Texas Temple
The Prosper Texas Temple is the Church's eighth temple in Texas and its third temple in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area. Other temples in Texas include the Dallas Texas Temple (dedicated in 1984), the Houston Texas Temple (dedicated in 2000), the Lubbock Texas Temple (dedicated in 2002), the San Antonio Texas Temple (dedicated in 2005), the McAllen Texas Temple (announced in 2019), the Fort Worth Texas Temple (announced in 2021), and the Austin Texas Temple (announced in April 2022). The new temple in Prosper will likely include 8-10 stakes in northern Dallas - half of which have been organized in the past 15 years. Northern Dallas has numbered among the most rapidly growing areas of the Church in the United States. The announcement of the new temple in Prosper makes the Dallas/Forth Worth metropolitan area the first metropolitan area east of the Rocky Mountains to have three temples.
Lone Mountain Nevada Temple
The Lone Mountain Nevada Temple is the Church's fourth temple in Nevada following the Las Vegas Nevada Temple (dedicated in 1989), the Reno Nevada Temple (dedicated in 2000), and the Elko Nevada Temple (announced in 2021). The new temple will likely include approximately 10 stakes within the temple district. Steady growth has occurred in northwestern Las Vegas where the new temple will be constructed, with three stakes created in the area during the past seven years. There are 28 stakes in the Las Vegas/Henderson metropolitan area.
Tacoma Washington Temple
The Tacoma Washington Temple is the Church's fifth temple in Washington following the Seattle Washington Temple (dedicated in 1980), the Spokane Washington Temple (dedicated in 1999), the Columbia River Washington Temple (dedicated in 2001), and the Moses Lake Washington Temple (announced in 2019). The new temple may serve as many as 20 stakes in the Tacoma area and in southwestern Washington State, and the Seattle Washington Temple may have as few as 15 stakes assigned following the creation of the new temple. The Church has experienced essentially stagnant growth in the Tacoma area during the past 20 years, and there have been significant consolidations of congregations in the Seattle area in the past few years after many years of no significant change in the number of congregations in the area. The oldest stake in the Tacoma area, the Gig Harbor Washington Stake, was organized in 1952.
49 comments:
Apart from the Indiana Stake that will go to the Grand Rapids Temple, I could see some other Chicagoland residents potentially going there to avoid the big city traffic. Chicago freeways can be so fickle.
Vegas gets another, that is sweet. Washington state has a great number of needs, as does Florida. Both are continuing to grow above the national average, I think.
Where else? Oh, northern Texas. Very sweet, huge work and population growth there.
Still awaiting West Virginia, Maine, Wisconsin... I think that Rhode Island might take the longest time of all states, like it was in stakes.
Would Vermont get one before New Hampshire? I think so, especially if Maine were to get one.
That is almost all the states, really. Temples are coming to the people. The time is now!
I keep thinking temple announcements will slow down, but keep being proved wrong. I definitely don't mind being proved wrong when it comes to the number of temple announcements. We just need to make sure we do the work to fill them.
I'm very curious about the status of the Kyiv Ukraine temple. I have heard various contradictory things about it. Closed, decommissioned, reopened, etc. I tried to see what the schedule is for ordinances and the temple site does not have it on the list of temples you can click on to make an appointment. Anybody know the true situation?
Does anyone know how the Church handles the physical security of its many temples? When the Orem temple had that fire break out, I wondered if there was around-the-clock security that the arsonist(s) got through. I've noticed a common practice with many temples to build a chapel nearby. This would help put more members on or near the property to help keep bad folks away.
Paul
“Earlier this year, the Kyiv temple was temporarily closed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has carefully evaluated the current circumstances and decided to resume — on a limited basis — the sacred religious ceremonies in the temple,” said Church spokeswoman Irene Caso in a statement released Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022/10/16/23408007/church-reopens-kyiv-ukraine-temple-for-ordinance-work-on-a-limited-basis
I think it is extraordinary that the Church has reopened the temple so soon after a slew of bombings having occurred on Oct. 10th, and again on Oct. 17th. The citizens and Saints continue to be so brave in the face of this war.
With regards to temple security, it seems that most temples are fenced off with, usually with ornate yet substantial "fence-hopping" deterrent features, and many international temples have security checkpoints to access the temple grounds. Even tiny, low-crime, mostly LDS communities like Monticello, Utah still has a secure fence around the temple. Yet, I am amazed that some temples have no fence at all. Bern, Copenhagen, Lisbon -- none of these temples have any sort of fence to prevent the public from walking up and touching the front doors of the temple, for better or worse, at any time of day or night. I imagine security personnel are still present on the sites around the clock. But even in Bismarck, North Dakota, a fence surrounds the temple grounds, except for the actual front door of the temple. I have driven up to that temple in the middle of the night, while passing through town, and didn't notice any security on site, but it was also so cold someone would have to be desperate to try and breach the temple (in the winter months).
My two cents on the subject :)
One more thought, the fence around The Hague Netherlands Temple is very low -- I think someone could hop over it quite easy if they wanted to. The church has planted shrubs in front of the fence to make unauthorized access a bit more difficult, but still.... The fence is probably low, or missing altogether in the examples, due to municipal ordinance requirements.
The Hague Temple is one of the most beautiful temples, in my opinion. It is also the only temple that is located below sea level.
As of today 11 U.S. states still don't have a temple within their borders. Although a few of those have temples just across their borders on what would be the same metropolitan area. For example, New Jersey has Manhattan on one side and Philadelphia on another side. The Nauvoo, Illinois Temple is just across the river from Iowa, the same for Winter Quarters Nebraska on the other side of Iowa. The nine other states without temples are Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, West Virginia, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The latter also has The St. Paul Minnesota Temple close to it's border.
Last week the Church announced a limited reopening of the temple in Kyiv. https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022/10/16/23408007/church-reopens-kyiv-ukraine-temple-for-ordinance-work-on-a-limited-basis#:~:text=After%20nearly%20nine%20months%20of,Kyiv%20temple%20was%20temporarily%20closed.
The Manhattan New York Temple is right on the public sidewalk and street. Therefore it does not even have a garden are (although I think it has a few flower pots or planters along the sidewalk) so no room for a fence. It even seems to share part of the building with a city art museum and an office or apartment tower that appears to be connected in some way. A meetinghouse and other church functions are also part of the same building.
From six years working at the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, I can confirm that security was on duty during operating hours. I believe in certain cases they made arrangements for overnight security, but am not sure which situations necessitated overnight security. I am also unsure whether the Church provides security services for temples that are closed for extended maintenance or renovation or for new temples under construction. I imagine that's discretionary and based on needs and availability.
Also, I was surprised that the Church did not share any new temple news today. My understanding is that something may have been planned but had to be delayed or scrapped for reasons unknown to the general public.
Matt, the Canadian Census numbers were released today.
From 2001 to 2011, the church grew in raw numbers but shrunk as a proportion of Canadian population.
From 2011 to 2021, the church SHRUNK in raw numbers (and I'm assuming in proportion to total Canadian population).
Decrease in raw membership was roughly 20%, which is astounding to me. This trend of self-declared members shrinking while "official reported" members by the church increases seems to be happening across various countries (most recently Mexico, IIRC).
Anyway, hoping to see a post on this.
20% is a very significant decrease that, if real, would likely lead to significant contractions in the number of congregations. The proportions would be larger than anything we have likely seen in over a century.
Thus, since this is not happening, there are likely other factors at play that skew the data. There is not a lot of evidence that active membership in Canada has substantially changed (grown or declined) in the last decade.
Hello Pascal and James - Yes, a 19.0% decline in a decade (this is the exact rate of decrease) for self-affiliated Latter-day Saints on any country census is a huge deal. I had a few minutes earlier today when I browsed the data release, but I did not see much of a breakdown aside from religious affiliation by ethnicity. For Christians as a whole in Canada, the percentage of Christians in the population went down 67.3% in 2011 to 53.3% in 2021 - a 20.5% decrease. So, this means that the percentage decrease in Latter-day Saints (total number reported in 2011 vs 2021) was essentially identical for the percentage decrease of Christians (as a percentage of the population) during this 10-year period.
To get an idea of what is going on, we need to have more information in terms of the number of Latter-day Saints by province/territory (and compare this to the prior decade numbers), not to mention other data which I am sure are not collected by the census (like data grouped by age and gender).
The 2011 census noted 105,365 Latter-day Saints, whereas the 2021 census noted 85,315 for those who do not have these figures. The data can be found here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810034201
Like Pascal said, the congregational growth rates in Canada have not supported major changes in the number of active Latter-day Saints in the country. The number of congregations in Canada has increased from 477 as of year-end 2011 to 499 as of year-end 2021. Moreover, Church membership in Canada increased from 185,149 to 199,534 during this 10-year period. The average number of members per congregation in Canada increased from 388 in 2011 to 400 in 2021 - one of the lowest members-to-congregations ratios in the world among countries where there are at least 100,000 members on the records. These data indicate membership growth rates have outpaced congregational growth rates - a finding typical in situations where the member activity rate may be decreasing (or where the number of active members per congregation is increasing).
These census data in Canada are similar to Australia where the census noted a decline in the number of self-reported Latter-day Saints between 2021 and 2016, although this decrease was only 4.9%. However, most of the nations in Oceania have had pretty striking census findings in terms of steady increases in self-affiliated members - sometimes at a rate that is more rapid than Church-reported membership.
As for what may be going on to explain the 2021 Canada Census figures for Latter-day Saints, I think there are several possibilities. It is likely that the what is really going on is a combination of one or more of them. These include:
1. Active members who go inactive and no longer consider themselves Latter-day Saints.
2. Inactive members who used to consider themselves Latter-day Saints but no longer do.
3. A higher death rate compared to a birth rate for the Church in Canada (I am not sure if this is true or not, but if it is, this could be a contributing factor).
4. Errors in previous or current reporting of census data (i.e., perhaps over-reporting or under-reporting).
Could emigration contribute to these number declines? Inactive or active members emigrating out of Canada. (Or the for the numbers in other countries such as those in Australia, Other Oceania, or Mexico?). What would be the "out" vs "in" immigration in a given country compared to the birth and death rates and compare that to our conversion rates?
The most likely main force behind the Canadian numbers is inactive members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer identifying on the census with the Church. The numbers just do not suggest actual significant membership drops. The number changes make me wonder if there is a change in wording issue that caused people who act the same in 2021 to report religion differently than in 2011.
It is over 2 hours and 20 minutes from Gary to Grand Rapids. It is only 58 minutes from Gary to the Chicago Temple, at least when I ran the Google maps search. Members from the stake in the Chicago region of Indiana may choose to go to Grand Rapids Temple but it will not be for the benefit of speed.
I can see the Las Vegas metro area having 4 or 5 temples.
I can share my experience regarding the Church in Canada. In our unit (approx. 50 meeting) this year, I had my membership removed, a friend went inactive and is bordering on complete removal. A newly married couple, who one went inactive, and one left the church. In the decade from 2011 to 2021, I can't imagine how many other people would be added to that list. The stake is really struggling too. So yeah, unfortunately, these figures don't surprise me at all.
Matt, thanks for the insights. It would be interesting to see the reasonable range of active members per ward. What is the cieling, and what is the floor, of active members per congregation? There has to be some slack built in so that the church in any area can absorb losses and even still retain congregations, and in some cases even grow congregations.
It may be that Canada as a whole operates with fewer active members per unit than in 2011. Given some of the changes made since 2011 (2 hour church, HP Group combining with EQ, etc.) and COVID removing the needs of many callings temporarily, it may be that (1) the church can operate a ward with very few members, and (2) congregation adjustments are lagging/not reflective of real membership growth. Is it possible that 40 people per ward who used to self-identify as Mormon are no longer self-identifying? I'd say that's certainly plausible, although admittedly that is a really big drop.
My biggest question for you, Matt: Given these figures, and the figures in Australia, Mexico, etc. - is the church experiencing negative growth in real terms (real meaning active participating members, not "on the rolls" members)? I could buy that maybe the Mexican Census had some error in its reporting or data collection, but seeing various countries triangulate around a negative trend is convincing. It seems Census data from various sources are suggesting the church is experiencing real negative growth, even though nominal (on the rolls) membership continues to grow. I'm not sure congregational growth is a better indicator than actual Census reporting in these cases, given that congregation size fluctuates and likely lags membership-level growth.
I know some people who have left Church activity for some political reasons, which can overlap on candidates voted for, causes advocated by some, political trends that compete with moral mores and standards. Like traditional marriage.
I knew a young lady from southern California who would have served a mission but she was opposed to the Church of Jesus Christ's stance on supporting marriage between a man and a woman and not same gender. (My personal take: the Church should have let a rights-granting civil union be the thing.) Marriage was conflated with rights and privileges.
Some fall away from Jesus and God in general, some from the commitment to the lifestyle, both time and restrictions, like alcohol, or lewd entertainment, for example. Some are offended by members, etcetera.
But I am hopeful that the Church is fulfilling all the prophesies still.
The temples will help us accomplish this.
Africa, at least 2/3 of it, is blossoming as a rose. Scriptures and promises fulfilled. Or going in that direction.
Brother Lambert, have you ever driven across the width or breadth of Chicago? Even without the ice and snow, the traffic can build up for hours. Benefit of speed, with traffic considerations or the frustration of waiting for miles of vehicles moving at a snail's pace, I think would make Grand Rapids more enticing than the north side of Chicago for someone even on the south side. If you can find a good time of day to drive it, like early Saturday morning or late on a weeknight, more power to you.
Yorba Linda in LA seems to follow this same pattern. Although it is great to see the California Saints can support this new temple in a region not far from the others.
Eternal marriage between a man and a woman is central to exaltation. The prophets know what they are doing by speaking for it.
A lot of rhetoric on why things happen ignores reality. The fastest shrinking churches are those that reject Biblical morality, not those who stand with it.
Chicago is massive. From the south, the suburbs really start north of Kankakee and Joliet. And really, on the north side it merges directly with Milwaukee via Kenosha. Aurora to Gary is far as well; one day, places like DeKalb will just be absorbed in the metro. It goes on forever and ever, and when traffic is bad or there is an accident, you can spend hours getting from one end to the other. If there is ever this illusive temple in Champaign, I would not be surprised if people came there all the way from the south of Chicagoland because the drive is much more relaxed and predictable.
Matt and others: how does The Church growth or loss compare with other faiths on the various census of self reports? Is the trend of slow growth or decline a trend across most faith groups, if so, what is the difference? What about the change of those self-reported as atheist or no faith?
Well I have been in Brampton, Ontario for the last day or so. In the temple session I was in there was a sister from Peru who was there with her son who is about to leave for a mission inthe Dominican Republic. Then my wife got a sister in the office to show us the baptistry. She was originally from the Phillipines. On the other hand there was no one in the temple session from India. Having been various places in Brampton I can tell you that there are huge numbers of people from India in this city.
This website needs to stop allowing people to post hateful and inflammatory descriptions of others political positions.
As a wise individual once said, "Only a fool takes offense where none is intended." This comment is coming from someone who has been very foolish in that respect on numerous occasions, even here on this blog. I think we fall short of meeting the purposes for which Matt established this blog when we fail to allow for differences in situation, and when we forget the wise counsel in the second verse of "Lord, I Would Follow Thee". I think Matt would appreciate it if we consider 3 questions before we post: Is it appropriate? Is it kind? Is it necessary? I welcome all perspectives here, and learn a lot from you all. Daniel, if we are so unfortunate as to lose your comments here, your perspective is welcome and encouraged on my blog, where I have more time to monitor discussions there. In the meantime, as members of the Lord's Church, I hope we can try more fully here to recognize that the Church and its' doctrine are perfect, but the people within it are nor always so. If we were, none of us would be here. May we allow for differences in situation and be more civil I'm our dialogue here.
Daniel, I don't think John would like you to withdraw from the forum -- but his point is that you consistently bring up politics on a site where it generally isn't relevant, and do so in an inflammatory way, sometimes calling or implying those you disagree with are fascist. I have strong opinions on the Lula regime and my views on those who support it or want to see it returned to power, but I have never replied with my views on the subject to your comments because I know that is outside the scope of what this is intended to be about. Expectations to stay on topic and avoid political attacks are not calls to withdraw from the space, rather they are invitations to comply with the norms of behavior on the blog. It is easy to let politics take over every aspect of our lives, but that really poisons our interactions with other people and I think should be avoided. I hope you continue to participate and comment here, but perhaps consider that partisanship is not appropriate for this setting.
Sorry. "in our dialogue here." Autocorrect drives me nuts sometime.
Just a note about the northern Arizona region. Currently members in stakes have a somewhat long drive to the nearest temple. Page AZ Stake has about a 2 hour drive to St. George, which is now closed for renovation. The Cedar City Temple is available, but is about an extra 45 minute drive than St. George. Tuba City AZ Stake is about 2.5 hours from the Snowflake Temple. Flagstaff (2 stakes) about 2 hours to Phoenix AZ temple. Cottonwood AZ Stake 1.75 hours to Phoenix AZ temple. Prescott and Prescott Valley AZ stakes 1.75 hours to Phoenix AZ temple. Kingman AZ Stake about 1.5 hours to Las Vegas Temple. Winslow AZ Stake 1.5 hours to Snowflake Temple. A temple in Flagstaff would certainly make those trips shorter. Page 1.5 hours, Tuba City 1 hour, Cottonwood 1 hour, Prescott and Prescott Valley 1.5 hours, Winslow 30 minutes, Kingman 1.5 hours. Most of the Western Navajo Reservation would be about 1-2.5 hours away from Flagstaff (Tuba City, Kaibeto, Inscription House, Kayenta, Hopi Reservation, Leupp, Pinon, Chinle, Ganado, Cameron, Indian Wells, Lower Greasewood, Many Farms). Hope there will be a temple in Flagstaff someday!
Tuba City and Chinle AZ stakes are anticipated to be in the new Farmington NM Temple District.
The Knoxville Tennessee Temple has had a basic plan and site announced. It will be 30,000 square feet. The other 2 temples in Tennessee are 10,700 square feet (Nashville) and 10,879 square feet. Raleigh in North Carolina is at 12,700 square feet or so after renovation.
This seems odd, since Nashville has more members than Knoxville. I am wondering if we will see any of the temples dedicated in 1999-2000 renovated from their current 10,700 or so square footage to something like 20,000 or even 30,000 square feet.
Tampa and Fort Worth are also coming in at 30,000 square feet. Mexico City Benamerito at 29,000, San Luis Potosi at I think 9,300 and Sao Paulo East at 46,000.
I am also wondering if anyone has ever graphed total temple square footage over time.
JPL, no need to characterize other people’s comments as doing so makes that person part of the problem. Daniel was discussing politics in the context of how he sees it affecting church growth in his area, and how it is affecting his own church participation.
Flagstaff, Arizona sounds like it would be the right place for a temple. I would wish that the Navajo and Hopi would have enough members to have their own temple. Still quite a drive from Snowflake.
That is quite a list of places in the Navajo Nation, Dad Little. Are there better economic prospects out there? I hope so. I would love to see more native Americans join the faith and thrive with it.
Book of Mormon prophecies will come true, as I know the Lord.
Thinking about the Matt Stone and Tre Parker profane and crude musical... Has Uganda gotten a temple declared? 300 temples is harder to keep track of... Amazing. Places in Brazil and Mexico that few of us have ever paid attention to. And this will continue in Africa, too.
Glorious time to live in. LeGrand Richards was right, as well as all the others.
I did not name anyone in particular in my previous complain. The fact people seem to know who I meant shows that everyone knows that the rhetoric used was just plain wrong. We should not go around calling people "fascist". This is degrading and attack rhetoric, and should have no place here.
I would just like to observe here that this blog is owned and maintained by Matt. In view of that fact, he and he alone should have the discretion and final say on the direction of the dialogue here. If I were to assert that it is my prerogative to call other people out on what they said or how they said it, or that I had a right to control the discussion here, some might interpret that as arrogant and out of line on my part. I think we'd all be well served in the future to let Matt control the substance, tone, and structure of these threads.
This comment is just a general observation and not directed to anyone in particular here. Matt, if you at any point feel that any of my comments are problematic, feel free to let me know and/or delete them.
JPL, I read up on the Brazil situation and apparently Brazilians use the word fascist alot online when discussing the situation. In my circles in the western US the word fascist is used relatively rarely and has sharp connotations and understanding attached with it.
Similarly, it seems words like communist and socialist were understood in the US to be much harsher in the US than now. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to refer to Bernie Sanders as socialist - in fact he describes himself as a democratic socialist.
I guess my point is, I think the connotations of fascism in the US are different than in Brazil.
Heck, when I was a kid people in my circles hated being called liberal (because of the connotations).
There as been a lot of excitement about the location of the Tampa Temple. There was a rumor of another place in north Tampa, but a lot of people here thought it would be in the Valrico area. It makes sense given where it is, how easy it is to get off from I-75 from those coming from the north or south. Also given that area along with Lakeland and Winter Haven are booming it becomes more centralized location. For a lot of people south of Disney they struggle with the traffic and being able to get to Orlando in a decent time. With the location in Valrico it is cutting over 30-60 minutes each way for most people who will go there.
Right, about Canada, it was the future President John Taylor who was found in Ontario by the missionary and (later?) apostle Parley P. Pratt. I mixed up the who's who.
Every mission and missionary has big impacts, whether we recognize it or not.
West Virginia is a tricky temple spot, because so many stakes support other states and their temples.
Fascist is in English a wrong and hateful word. It is a total and unjustified attack on others. It should have no place in polite discourse. The language of this blog is English, and the use of the word "fascist" to describe people is just as wrong as the use of the word "Nazi". We should not tolerate people baselessly throwing these words at others, period.
People have a general right to protest against dialogue that is rude, degrading and dehumanizing of ones political oppoenants.
I would especially take exception of the mass attack on members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for supporting a candidate one does not like because I think it violates the letter and even more so the spirt of President Oaks October 2020 general conference talk.
Well, about critiques and attacks, we as members if the Church of Jesus Christ get attacked or degraded enough by outsiders, we definitely do not have to do it to ourselves. No John 17 in that at all!
I recall some Chilean members in-fighting in Angol back in 2005, when I was about to be in the bishopric there. So disappointing. God weeps, I'm sure.
I am writing a blog post on why people attack the Book of Mormon. I believe it is the Spirit of contention and of the Enemy. But there are many reasons. Are any of them right?
We must stay positive, always. Christ is our champion, and we have to emulate and exemplify that.
I think Vermont and Maine would get temples before New Hampshire, if I have not shared that before.
I looked up the records for the Lone Mountain temple.
Parcel: 13806801010
Owner Name(s): CHURCH JESUS CHRIST LATTER DAY SAINTS
Jurisdiction: Las Vegas - 89129
Sale Date: 07/2022
Sale Price: $12,500,000
Estimated Lot Size: 17.5
Recorded Doc Number: 20220722 00000716
Aerial Flight Date: 2022-09-23
Check it out
https://maps.clarkcountynv.gov/assessor/AssessorParcelDetail/ParcelDetail.aspx?hdnParcel=13806801010&hdnInstance=pcl7
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