The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
With The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announcing Oct. 19 status changes for 13 temples, the upgrades result in a number of noteworthy moves in the phased reopenings of temples closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Honduras’ only temple is reopening after being closed since March.
- All 13 of Mexico’s temples will have reopened, with nearly half in Phase 2.
- All three temples in the state of Washington are being upgraded to Phase 2.
- More than half of California’s eight temples — five — will be in Phase 2.
- And both temples in Japan will be in Phase 2, resulting in all four available temples in Asia operating in that phase.
In the 24th week of announcing reopenings through Newsroom, the Church will have reopened 151 temples as of Oct. 19. That total includes 121 temples in Phase 2 and another 30 in Phase 1, three of which in California still designated as “paused” while waiting for local conditions to improve before returning to Phase 1 operations.
Phase 2 allows for the performance of all temple ordinances for living individuals, with Phase 1 for only limited husband-and-wife sealings.
The 12 Phase 2 reopenings on Oct. 19 are:
- Ciudad Juárez Mexico
- Colonia Juárez Chihuahua Mexico
- Columbia River Washington
- Fresno California
- Fukuoka Japan
- Hermosillo Sonora Mexico
- Oaxaca Mexico
- Sacramento California
- Seattle Washington
- Spokane Washington
- Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mexico
- Veracruz Mexico
The Ciudad Juárez and Colonia Juárez Chihuahua temples both were rescheduled to reopen earlier this summer in Phase 1 but had since been closed due to prevailing pandemic conditions. The two are reopening directly to Phase 2.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
