Oldest Mormon temple will get facelift, public excursions previous to December dedication ceremony in Utah

ST. GEORGE, UTAH — Elder Matthew S. Holland, a common authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stood in a small “Sealing Room” on the church’s just-renovated St. George Utah Temple and spoke a few ritual that related many years of his household’s historical past.

“There is not a more sacred spot on the earth than this altar in this room,” Mr. Holland, a political scientist and former Utah Valley University president, stated. In this room, he was “sealed” in marriage to his spouse Paige, making him the fifth technology in his household — on his late mom’s facet — to have that ceremony there.

Those who aren’t members of the 17 million-member church wouldn’t normally be on this room. Only church members who carry a “recommend,” issued by a neighborhood bishop and testifying to an individual’s “worthiness” to enter the temple are allowed as soon as the constructing is devoted, one thing due right here on Dec. 10.

Before that occasion comes 4 weeks of public excursions. Mr. Holland was amongst officers main a gaggle of journalists by the 146-year-old temple, which went offline in November 2019 for restore, refurbishing and enlargement.

Church officers reverently describe the St. George Temple as a “Pioneer Temple,” one of many earliest constructed by Latter-day Saints, popularly referred to as Mormons. The 143,669-square-foot constructing, manufactured from crimson sandstone painted white to counsel purity, sits on 6.5 acres on this southern Utah metropolis, as soon as a dusty outpost now bustling with entrepreneurs, outside lovers, faculty college students and retirees interested in the nice and cozy local weather right here.

According to Richard E. Turley, Jr., a former church historian and co-author of “Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and its Aftermath,” the trouble to assemble the constructing right here, begun in 1871 in a city with out paved roads or railroad entry, meant “very intense” labor by members who’d come to settle the world and actually all of Utah.

“They had various groups of people from the [Utah] territory who came in and dedicated their time,” Mr. Turley stated in an interview. “This was during an era in which everyone was expected to have their tithing donations also include time, and not just financial resources.”

The historic significance of the St. George Temple was not misplaced on officers who spoke on the press preview.

“This is the longest operating temple we have in the church,” Elder Kevin W. Pearson, a common authority and Utah space president, stated. “This temple was the first time that ordinances were done for the ancestors of members of the church. In many ways, the St. George temple became the pattern by which temple work would later take place in other temples across Utah and now across the world.”

He stated, “We don’t build buildings like this for show or to demonstrate anything of any kind to the world. We build them to demonstrate to the Lord that we love him, that we follow the Savior and that we want to be close to them and to live the way the Savior taught us to live.”

Church Elder Erich W. Kopischke, additionally a common authority and assistant govt director of the church’s Temple Department, stated understanding the temple’s perform is essential to greedy the religion’s that means.

“If you really want to understand the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you will have to understand their temple worship,” he stated. “You will have to understand why they built these houses of the Lord, what they do in the house of the Lord and what binds them to Christ. This is the only way we can really understand the devotion.”

Today, the Latter-day Saints have 330 temples worldwide which can be both in operation, beneath development or renovation, or have been introduced by its present president, Russell M. Nelson.

Temples are usually not used for weekly worship or the baptism of latest members; these capabilities are assigned to native church buildings referred to as meetinghouses.

LDS Church members consider marriage and household are supposed to final without end, therefore the idea of “sealing” a pair “for time and eternity.” A church web site says the sealing idea comes from Jesus’ phrases in Matthew 16:19 about what Peter would “bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” They consider this authority extends to Mr. Nelson and people he designates.

The church says kids born of such marriages are thought of “automatically sealed” to their dad and mom, whereas {couples} who be part of the church after marriage will be sealed within the temple and have their kids sealed at the moment.

Temples, such because the St. George facility, are the place the church’s sacred ordinances, corresponding to sealing, proxy baptism for deceased kinfolk, and endowments, the place the “knowledge and understanding of gospel principles” are carried out.

And for native church members, the connections run deep and are emotional.

“My great-grandfather Milo Andrus was sent here by Brigham Young from Salt Lake, and he worked on this temple,” stated JJ Abernathy [c.q.], editor at St. George City Lifestyle journal.

Seeing the refurbishment is “a very emotional experience,” she stated.

“I actually worked in this temple before it was closed and with my husband, who was really into architectural detailing; he passed away a year ago,” Ms. Abernathy stated. “I just looked at everything and thought he would love the detailing.”