According to thousands of visitors at the D.C. Temple Open House — including U.S. and foreign government leaders, and adherents of other faiths, open house committee planners, and officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the open house, which ended on Saturday [June 11] was an historic, “capital” success.
More than 340,000 visitors were able to tour the newly-renovated edifice, and small private tours for specially-invited guests will continue sporadically.
The D.C. Temple Open House Committee, which planned the massive enterprise, is officially the longest-serving such committee in Church history. Kent and Kathryn Colton were called in October 2019 to co-chair the committee about a year and a half after they closed the temple as president and matron.
Their first move was to ask Clayton and Marla Foulger to serve as assistant coordinators, after which the four identified 12 subcommittees needed for the task. For subcommittee chairs, “We found that in every area, we had just the right people in the nation’s capital who were experts at the top of their fields,” related Sister Colton.
The committee was only able to meet in person three times before switching to virtual meetings in early 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not until October 2021 did they meet in person again. Among personnel changes during that time was the loss of the Foulgers when they were called to serve as the 15th D.C. Temple President and Matron.
The kickoff for the open house was on Easter Sunday with a special report on Jane Pauley’s CBS Sunday Morning broadcast — which featured an exclusive tour of the temple led by Elders David A. Bednar and D. Todd Christofferson, and their wives. Filming took four hours for the four-minute report. To their amazement, the production crew needed none of the usual extra lighting set-ups because there are almost no shadows within the temple. Like the light of Christ, Elder Bednar observed, “The lighting of the temple seems to permeate everything.
The following day, April 18, was Media Day, a chance to capitalize on what one observer called “a signature spotlight moment” for the Church, as well as to explain what LDS temples are about. Elders Bednar and Gerrit W. Gong conducted three press conferences and sat for numerous television, radio and print interviews.
Photo by Page Johnson
For more than ten hours at the temple, they and the two counselors of the general Relief Society presidency, conducted tours inside the temple with microphone-wielding journalists. Requesting quiet in the Celestial Room, Elder Gong pointed out that it was a room for prayerful contemplation. “We say, sacred place, sacred time.” It was a place, he said, in which you listen to your “deep heart’s core,” referencing a W.B. Yeats poem. Elder Bednar observed during his tours that it was a perfect spot to discover the depth of Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
On that day, there were 150 national and regional journalists whose media reach helped notify the public about the six weeks of public tours. By the end of that week, more than 100 articles appeared in multiple languages across the world, not to mention television and radio broadcasts, as well as numerous posts by social media influencers.
After the Media Day, more than 4,000 specially-invited guests participated in tours during eight additional days set aside for them. Elders Christofferson and Elder Quentin L. Cook joined Elders Bednar and Gong in hosting some of the tours which included U.S. Senators and Congressmen, several Supreme Court justices, LGBTQ leaders, high-profile D.C. professionals and academia.
Of particular importance were the invited diplomats, representing more than 100 countries, including 50 ambassadors. The Washington D.C. Temple is perhaps the most international of the U.S. temples because of the many diplomats from every country in the world in the nation’s capital. Quite a few of those dignitaries — like the ambassador from the United Arab Emirates — attended because the Church is building temples in their country, or hopes to do so. “In terms of the global impact for the Church, those tours were of immense importance,” said Brother Colton. “It’s just been a wonderful opportunity.”
A rewarding interfaith effort was also made, according to those who interacted with various rabbis, Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, Muslim leaders and others. “We’ve done a number of interfaith tours, and the common thread at the end of all these conversations is how much we have in common — like the importance of life and belief in a higher being,” Sister Colton observed.
One of the more interesting visitors in this group of invitees was Rev. Amos Brown, a Baptist pastor from San Francisco, who also sits on the national board of the NAACP. Speaking to journalists, he described himself as “peacock proud, hyena happy and elephant elated” to participate in the event. “It is a magnificent and beautiful temple,” adding, “but the true beauty of a temple does not lie in what you can see, it lies in what you cannot see in the hearts of those who will worship here and receive blessings. If all of the other religious groups in this nation follow the example of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints, we shall save the soul of America!”
In May, two further events planned by Church headquarters kept the positive momentum going with the media and the public.
For those who couldn’t participate in the tours on May 11, the Church released on the internet a 12-minute virtual tour of the D.C. Temple conducted by Elders Gary E. Stevenson and Dale G. Renlund. Then, on May 26, at the invitation of the National Press Club, Elder Bednar returned to Washington D.C. as the speaker for the “Headliners Luncheon.” Since 1932, more heads of state and government have appeared at that forum than any other than the White House. The last time this honor was accorded an LDS leader occurred in 2000 when President Gordon B. Hinckley accepted an invitation to speak and answer media questions.
In front of 135 media representatives at the lunch, and many more watching on television, Elder Bednar spoke eloquently about Church beliefs and humanitarian efforts, followed by a probing Q&A period which he handled deftly and with humor. Among other topics, he encouraged any of the journalists who hadn’t yet gone through the temple to do so.
Underscoring the importance of the open house, then, a total of six members of the Quorum of the Twelve personally participated in the event.
The public tours of the temple began on April 28. While a website called “dctemple.org” had been created in 2018, it needed a serious improvement to be an informational and ticketing platform for the open house. For many months, committee communication chair Anne Golightly researched and prayed to find a person who could begin this major upgrade. While she was hunting for help to craft tours for the deaf, she wound up talking to Kylie Mulladjanov, wife of a prominent LDS deaf leader in Maryland.
At the end of the conversation about inviting the deaf community, Sister Mulladjanov said: “I doubt you’ll need to know this, but for some reason I feel I’m supposed to tell you that I’m a web designer. But I am more than fully-booked. I’ve got three kids, I’m the Young Women’s president and I’m working full time. But if you need someone with any web design knowledge, I have it.”
“It was like a big light going off,” Golightly recalled. “I said, ‘I’ve been looking for you!’ … It was really an answer to prayer.”
If ever necessity was the mother of invention, the fact that open house attendees would only have access to 695 parking spaces helped the committee deduce that the staggered tour tickets would be for vehicles, and not individuals. One bright committee member suggested the committee provide regular shuttle buses from the nearest Metro station, to alleviate the limited parking issue — which was done.
In the original committee plans, three large tents were to be set up in which an introductory film would be shown before tours began. Because of COVID, this was reduced to one welcome (and security) tent. On top of all the videos uploaded on the content-rich dctemple.org website, all visitors could scan a QR code at the Welcome Tent which would provide them information about what they were seeing in each area of the temple.
A particularly daunting issue was the need for thousands of volunteers throughout the 48-day period, which became the responsibility of Brian and Sue Swinton, co-chairs for tours and ushers.
“We ran two shifts a day,” Brother Swinton explained. “We needed about 120 volunteers per shift, or 240 volunteers every day.” The only way to secure the needed numbers was to assign all the wards in the temple district to provide about 50 volunteers for one shift at the temple.” Training for the shifts was necessarily brief before each shift began. “It was like starting a brand-new restaurant with a brand-new chef and a brand-new menu and a brand-new crew every day,” Swinton said.
While some volunteers were assigned parking or security duties, the majority were tasked to be ushers stationed at locations inside and outside the temple. Their job was to be friendly and welcoming, to direct the visitors along the tour route and answer questions.
I took a turn with my ward and was assigned to greet visitors going in, and talk with those coming out. I thanked them for coming to the temple, to which many would respond: “Thank you so much for letting us come!”
While youth volunteers were removing the protective foot coverings when visitors came out of the temple, I would ask them about their experience. Many of them spoke about the beauty of the interior, and the feeling of peace and reverence that permeated it. Quite a few were tearful, saying they felt something that they had never felt before. What was that feeling? I explained as carefully as I could, without proselytizing.
During the first open house (in 1974), referral cards were available at the end of the tour so visitors could ask for future contact from Church missionaries, if they desired. But an early decision by the Church leadership directed that this open house was not to be a direct missionary effort. “The Church took the position they wanted to make sure that everyone who came felt that they were just coming to see the temple, that it was a gift with no strings attached,” Brother Swinton said. A substantial number of Books of Mormon were stored in the Welcome Tent in case anyone asked for one — and many visitors did.
Particularly since many members were inviting their neighbors and other non-member friends to come with them to the temple, one-on-one missionary work on a large scale was occurring daily. “I’m sure there are many people who will join the church as a result of this open house because many hearts have been touched,” observed member Marci Yurkovich, one of the committee’s top leaders. “I think just the revelation to the non-members going through that we are Christians is a really big thing. One of those who went through asked me to confirm this was the ‘Mormon Temple’ since he saw so many pictures of Christ and didn’t think we believed in Him.”
For a multitude of ushers, the opportunity to be kind and welcoming to uniformly appreciative “guests” was a balm for the soul, and often a great uplift. Among the sweet moments one sister experienced as an usher inside the temple occurred when she was stationed outside a sealing room next to a new painting of a black man kneeling in front of the Savior, looking up to Him with love. It was only one of the more than 200 paintings in the temple, many of which feature a variety of ethnicities.
A man with a Slavic accent noticed the painting as he exited the sealing room and approached her. He pointed to the picture, and quietly asked, “Do you know that man kneeling?”
“No,” she responded. “But we believe we are all children of God, that He loves us no matter where we come from or what color our skin is.”
He was moved to tears.
Because of an increasing amount of violence in the United States, security expert Frank Yurkovich, who co-chaired the “Safety and Security” committee with his wife Marci (above), detailed extensive preparations for anticipating and derailing any violent incidents.
“Frankly, in this day and age, we were greatly concerned about a mass shooting event at the open house,” Yurkovich said. In the months preceding the event, his team conducted extensive internet searches, hunting for developing threats or plots aimed at disrupting the temple event.
During the open house, on the back of every lanyard worn by volunteers was this instruction for responding to a possible threat or hostile demonstration:
“Kindly and calmly ask persons to be respectful of the Temple and others. If a person does not comply, stop the tour behind the disturbance and ask those in front to continue tour. Call security. Then calmly and politely, read the below [in bright yellow highlighting]:
“‘As a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ I must advise you that any implied or real invitation extended to you to be on the Temple grounds or these premises is hereby withdrawn. If you remain, we will view your actions as a trespass and notify the civil authorities.’
“Security or law enforcement will escort person out.”
Fortunately, no such incident occurred in the temple or on the grounds. However, two men did avail themselves of a designated “free speech” area set up in front of the adjacent stake center. One proclaimed himself a “true prophet” and, for two hours, preached or offered blessings to mostly uninterested visitors. The second man spent a day and a half decrying money-laundering in Macau, China, of all things.
A staff of several security professionals were buttressed each day by up to 18 volunteers, but Yurkovich felt his most valuable “assistants” were the leased Evolv scanners which had remarkable but unobtrusive detection capabilities. Every visitor was directed to pass through the standup scanners. There were no beeps and no need for wanding or “profiling,” as is done by American airport security. The scanners simply and quietly identified anything metal the visitor was carrying. As a result, a number of guns, knives and other sharp objects, and spray paint cans were removed. Those possessions were returned to the owners on the condition they be taken off the temple grounds. Yurkovich said the staff also considered containers of alcohol as contraband. “We didn’t want someone setting up a photo opportunity for social media like drinking inside the temple.”
The Yurkoviches were also in charge of the medical component, but out of the 340,000-plus visitors, only two required an ambulance for non-life-threatening medical issues. Both visitors, who were LDS, were given priesthood blessings on the scene.
Dealing with security issues in their professional lives, both of the Yurkoviches were humbled by the minuscule safety issues that occurred with such large crowds coming onto the grounds over a 48-day period. “We made plans,” summarized Brother Yurkovich. “We had details, personnel and equipment in place. We had responses in place. But there’s no question in my mind that the Lord filled in the gaps. He was protecting His House and His guests.”
Finally, throughout the years of planning for this open house event, there was one nettlesome question that couldn’t be definitively answered: how many visitors should be planned for?
When I asked committee co-chair Kent Colton that question last October, he prophetically predicted the approximate number.
During the 1974 open house, a record 758,322 visitors went through during the 52 days the temple was open. Brother Colton allowed that the number of visitors could approach that record, but he thought it was highly unlikely for three reasons:
First, open houses for temple rededications routinely draw a smaller number than the original dedication, in part because not as much curiosity exists about what was inside.
Second, the D.C. Temple district is much smaller now than it was in 1974. At that time, the temple district included about 300,000 members in every state east of the Mississippi River, and into eastern Canada and South America. In the nearly five decades since the first open house, so many temples have been built in the east that the D.C. Temple District now comprises the District of Columbia and four states — Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia — where an estimated 150,000 Latter-day Saints reside. So the potential number of those motivated by seeing “their temple” during the open house is half what it was in 1974.
Third, and most important, Brother Colton said, the open house will occur during a continuing COVID pandemic, which will certainly frighten potential visitors away from the large crowds that will be attending.
Therefore, he concluded, “I think about half the 1974 number (about 380,000) will come.” (In fact, his estimate would have been dead on if the open house had continued to 52 days like the first one, instead of ending after 48 days.)
“We’re pleased with the number who came,” noted Sister Golightly. “In fact, we’re thrilled with the numbers.” Sister Colton added that the committee’s goal was never about getting a big number. “The goal always was for people to come and see the temple and have a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience. And that happened!”
Over-arching all that happened during the open house was a theme Elder Bednar repeatedly and eloquently elucidated beginning with the first press conference: “Temples are much more than beautiful buildings. The commitments we make in our temple worship help us to see beyond our own self-interest, self‑centeredness and selfishness. Our hearts are changed and turn outward as we learn about God’s plan for our eternal destiny and happiness. Our love for God grows as we learn about the redeeming role of His Son, Jesus Christ, and our desire to love and serve our brothers and sisters increases. Our hearts are changed as they turn from self to God.”
