Church of Jesus Christ to build 4 temples in Africa & 16 others globally
The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson has announced that the church will be constructing 4 new temples in Africa and 16 others globally in the coming years. This was revealed in a prerecorded statement broadcast on Sunday, October 1, 2023 during the semi-annual general conference’s closing session.
The church informally known as the LDS Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ.
The announcement is the second-highest number of temples ever revealed at once in the church’s history. Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), a previous Church president, declared intentions to build up to 32 new temples during the general conference in April 1998, but he did not specify where they would be built.
It has 335 churches in all globally, with 177 of them currently in use, 59 under construction or refurbishment, and 99 under planning and design, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“The temple is a place of revelation. There you are shown how to progress toward a celestial life. There you are drawn closer to the Savior and given greater access to His power. There you are guided in solving the problems in your life, even your most perplexing problems. The ordinances and covenants of the temple are of eternal significance. The Lord is directing us to build these temples to help us think celestial,” said President Nelson.
Locations in Africa
A temple will be built in Cape Coast, Ghana; the third of its kind in the country. The Accra Ghana Temple was the second temple to be constructed on the continent and the first in West Africa when it was dedicated in 2004. In April 2021, the Kumasi Ghana Temple was declared. Ghana houses more than 350 congregations across the country, home to more than 100,000 Latter-day Saints.
Another temple will be built in Calabar, Nigeria. It will join the Aba, Benin City, Eket, and Lagos temples as the fifth temple in the country. Nigeria, which organised its first stake in 1988, ten years after the Church’s presence in the nation was established, has around 225,000 Latter-day Saints in about 770 congregations. The Aba Nigeria Temple, Nigeria’s first temple, was dedicated in 2005.
The church will build its first temple in Luanda, Angola’s capital city, although the first congregation in Luanda was established in 1996. Since 1985, there have been Latter-day Saints in Angola and nearly 5,000 Latter-day Saints reside in 20 congregations in Angola today. However, the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple is currently the closest temple for the majority of Angolan Latter-day Saints.
In Democratic Republic of Congo, LDS will construct their fourth temple in Mubuji-Mayi. The temple in Lubumbashi is still being built, while the temple in Kinshasa was dedicated in 2019, and in October 2021, the Kananga temple was announced. More than 100,000 Latter-day Saints live in the nation, which was dedicated in 1987. They are organised into about 270 congregations.
Other global locations
1. Savai’i, Samoa
2. Kahului, Hawaii
3. Fairbanks, Alaska
4. Vancouver, Washington
5. Colorado Springs, Colorado
6. Tulsa, Oklahoma
7. Roanoke, Virginia
8. Cancún, Mexico
9. Piura, Peru
10. Huancayo, Peru
11. Viña del Mar, Chile
12. Goiânia, Brazil
13. João Pessoa, Brazil
14. Laoag, Philippines
15. Osaka, Japan
16. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The church has congregations and temples throughout the world, with its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. The church claims to have 62,544 full-time volunteer missionaries and over 17 million members.
According to these figures, the church ranked as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the US as of 2012, and as of 2021, it had over 6.7 million US members. It is the greatest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement, which Joseph Smith started during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century.
Source: TheAfricanDream.co
Oral Ofori is Founder and Publisher at www.TheAfricanDream.net, a digital storyteller and producer, and also an information and research consultant.
