The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
All 89 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in the United States and Canada have been designated to offer all living and proxy ordinances in the level of operations known as Phase 3 — with most doing so now and the rest by the end of August.
After completely closing all 168 temples worldwide in late March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church continues to reopen its temples and advance their operations in a careful and cautious four-phase plan. As of this month, all of the Church’s operating temples have reopened after the pandemic closures.
Of the 89 U.S. and Canada temples, 80 are now operating in Phase 3 and offering all living and proxy ordinances, with pandemic precautions currently limiting the number of participating temple patrons.
Another four temples operating in Phase 2-B offering all living ordinances and proxy baptisms are projected to move to Phase 3 this summer — the Toronto Ontario and Vancouver British Columbia temples by the end of July and the Medford Oregon and Spokane Washington temples by the end of August.
And the temple districts for the five U.S. temples closed for major renovations — the Columbus Ohio, Mesa Arizona, Salt Lake, St. George Utah and Washington D.C. temples — have been given Phase 3 designation so that Latter-day Saints living in those districts can schedule living and proxy ordinances in nearby temples.
Counting all the current and projected temples and districts in Phase 3 (including several that have temporarily paused operations because of local COVID-19 conditions), 135 of the Church’s 168 temples — or 80.3% — are designated now to be offering all proxy ordinances.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
