(Feature photo can be found here: Cedar City Temple – Autumn Sunset by Tausha Coates)

Welcome back to our four-part series about how LDS temples are built! In case you missed them, be sure to read Part 1 – Funding, Finding a Need, and Selecting a Site, Part 2 – Design and the Importance of “Sustainable Design”, and Part 3 – Construction. In this fourth and final part, we’ll be talking about the public open house and dedication.

Open House

It was mentioned in Part 1 of this series that only members of the LDS Church who live up by the highest standards are permitted to enter a temple once it has been dedicated. But when the construction is finished, and before the official dedication takes place, the doors of the temple are opened to the public for several weeks for free tours. These public open houses are a wonderful and rare opportunity for the general public – Mormon or not – to walk through the inside of the beautiful temple and learn more about our beliefs.

Dedication

A week or two after the open house has ended, a Church leader (usually the Church President or a member of the First Presidency) holds a meeting to formally dedicate the temple. During one part of the dedication, the cornerstone ceremony, Church leaders and others place mortar around the cornerstone to symbolize the temple’s completion. Within this cornerstone is a large box containing many special “artifacts” and items related to the construction of the temple, the community, or the history of the area. Once the cornerstone ceremony takes place, the President, or the person he assigns, says the dedicatory prayer “to consecrate the temple that it would be used for those sacred purposes for which the temple is built.”

San Diego Temple – Autumn Sunset Aerial by Rory Wallwork

A Wonderful Addition to the Community

It’s interesting to note that when a new temple is built, community leaders and journalists tend to refer to the new temple as “our temple” The temple is normally one of the most beautiful —if not the most beautiful — building in a community, and its beautifully-built structure and immaculately-kept grounds are even a source of pride for local citizens, whether they are members of the Church or not. In fact, experience worldwide shows that LDS temples positively impact neighborhood property values, even in a bad economy.

And finally, temples are considered “houses of the Lord” where Jesus Christ’s teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ordinances that unite families for eternity. Inside, members learn more about the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus Christ and their fellow man.

That concludes our 4-part series about how LDS temples are built. We hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned as much as we have while writing it!