The scheduled dedication and open house dates for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple have been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
Announced today on Newsroom, the postponement is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ third for temples that had been set for dedication or rededication and related open house activities.
Like the others before, the Winnipeg temple’s dedication, open house and youth devotional will be rescheduled when large public gatherings are deemed safe.
On April 30, the First Presidency had announced dates of Oct. 22 through Oct. 31 for the free public open house, with Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to dedicate the temple on Sunday, Nov. 8, in three sessions. A youth devotional was planned for the evening before the dedication.
Dates for the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple and Washington D.C. Temple are pending following similar postponements.
On March 18, the Church postponed the dates for the new Rio de Janeiro temple, which had been set for an open house from April 17 through May 2 and a May 17 dedication.
And on June 17, the dates for the Washington D.C. Temple were put on hold — a public open house from Sept. 24 though Oct. 31 and a Dec. 13 rededication follow its extensive renovations.
When dedicated, the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple will be the ninth operating temple in Canada. Currently, the Church has 168 operating temples worldwide, the most recent to be dedicated being the Durban South Africa Temple in mid-February, before the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Winnipeg Manitoba Temple was announced in April 2011, with ground broken at the site in city’s Bridgwater neighborhood in December 2016. The 16,000 square-foot temple features a copper steeple, slate roof tiles and Tyndall stone quarried just outside of Winnipeg.
President Russell M. Nelson and other guests visited the construction site in August 2018 during his ministry through central and eastern Canada, with stops in Winnipeg, Montreal and Hamilton, the latter just southwest of Toronto.
The Canadian province of Manitoba is home to more than 4,700 Latter-day Saints, who comprise 14 congregations. The closest temple for these Church members are found in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Bismarck, North Dakota.
