The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that 60 temples will resume offering all ordinances for the first time in more than a year.
After completely closing all of its temples worldwide in late March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church continues to reopen its temples and their operations in a careful and cautious four-phase plan.
On Tuesday, May 25, the Church released a list of the 60 temples where all living and proxy ordinances can be performed, beginning in either in June or July.
In all, at least 129 of the Church’s 168 dedicated temples worldwide — or 76.8% — will be designated for proxy temple work by the end of July.
In May 2020, after a six-week period where all the temples were closed, the First Presidency announced a phased reopening of temples. Tuesday’s announcement will move 60 temples to Phase 3 — which allows temples to open for all ordinances with restrictions. In Phase 1 temples are open for limited living husband-and-wife sealings, Phase 2 for all living ordinances and Phase 2-B for all living ordinances and proxy baptisms.
Because of possible changes in local COVID-19 conditions and guidelines, specific dates are not being released for when each of the 60 temples is moving to Phase 3 over the next two months.
Instead, Church members who reside in a given temple district will be notified by email that the online reservation system has been activated for the temple in which district they reside.
To minimize strain on the Church’s online reservation system, only a handful of temples at a time — typically from one to four — will begin taking reservations for Phase 3 ordinances.
Emails for the first of the 60 temples moving to Phase 3 are expected to go out later this week.
The 60 temples join 31 other temples already operating in the same phase. The existing Phase 3 temples also provide an example of the fluidity of scheduling and maintaining operational changes, with three of the current Phase 3 temples temporarily paused due to local COVID-19 conditions and precautions.
Tuesday’s announcement also included the latest 13 temples to move to Phase 2-B operations, which includes the allowance of proxy baptisms along with all living ordinances.
Latest temple updates: 60 temples to soon offer all proxy ordinances; 13 others to allow proxy baptisms
With the changes, at least 91 temples across the globe by the end of July will be operating in Phase 3 and approved for all proxy ordinances, with another 38 temples in Phase 2-B and offering proxy baptisms.
Increasing capacity
Because of the lessening of COVID-19 conditions and precautions in local areas, temple capacities have been increasing.
For a number of operating temples, workers have been contacting patrons who have scheduled ordinances involving approved small groups of participants or guests — such as those participating in proxy baptisms or observing a living sealing — to let them know they can increase the size of the group to a new allowance.
The increased capacities vary from temple to temple and depend on local conditions and guidelines.
60 temples moving to Phase 3
Moving to Phase 3 during the next two months and offering all proxy ordinances (listed according to Church area):
Caribbean Area
- Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple
Central America Area
- Panama City Panama Temple
- Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple
Mexico Area
- Guadalajara Mexico Temple
- Monterrey Mexico Temple
- Tampico Mexico Temple
- Veracruz Mexico Temple
North America Central Area
- Billings Montana Temple
- Boise Idaho Temple
- Idaho Falls Idaho Temple
- Meridian Idaho Temple
- Nauvoo Illinois Temple
- Rexburg Idaho Temple
- St. Louis Missouri Temple
- Star Valley Wyoming Temple
- Twin Falls Idaho Temple
- Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple
North America Northeast Area
- Montreal Quebec Temple
North America Southeast Area
- Atlanta Georgia Temple
- Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple
- Birmingham Alabama
- Nashville Tennessee Temple
North America Southwest Area
- Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
- Dallas Texas Temple
- Gilbert Arizona Temple
- Houston Texas Temple
- Las Vegas Nevada Temple
- Lubbock Texas Temple
- Mesa Arizona Temple *
- Monticello Utah Temple
- Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
- Phoenix Arizona Temple
- Reno Nevada Temple
- San Antonio Texas Temple
- Snowflake Arizona Temple
- The Gila Valley Arizona Temple
- Tucson Arizona Temple
North America West Area
- Fresno California Temple
- Los Angeles California Temple
- Newport Beach California Temple
- Oakland California Temple
- Redlands California Temple
- Sacramento California Temple
- San Diego California Temple
Utah Area
- Bountiful Utah Temple
- Brigham City Utah Temple
- Cedar City Utah Temple
- Draper Utah Temple
- Jordan River Utah Temple
- Logan Utah Temple
- Manti Utah Temple
- Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple
- Ogden Utah Temple
- Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple
- Payson Utah Temple
- Provo City Center Temple
- Provo Utah Temple
- Salt Lake Temple *
- St. George Utah Temple *
- Vernal Utah Temple
(Note: the Monticello Utah Temple is in the Church’s North America Southwest Area.)
Three of the above temples are closed while undergoing major renovations — the Mesa Arizona, Salt Lake and St. George Utah temples, each marked with an asterisk (*). Like the Hamilton New Zealand Temple in previous weeks, the three temple districts will be designated as Phase 3 in either June or July, allowing Latter-day Saints residing in those districts to use the Church’s online scheduling to set appointments for ordinance work in nearby temples.
Temples already operating in Phase 3
The following temples — also listed by Church area — are already operating in Phase 3 and have been offering all living and proxy ordinances:
Africa Central Area: Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple
Africa South Area: Durban South Africa and Johannesburg South Africa temples
Africa West Area: Aba Nigeria and Accra Ghana temples
Asia Area: Taipei Taiwan Temple (currently paused)
Asia North Area: Fukuoka Japan Temple
Caribbean Area: Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple
Central America Area: Guatemala City Guatemala and San Salvador El Salvador temples
Europe Area: London England and Preston England temples
Mexico Area: Mérida Mexico, Oaxaca Mexico and Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mexico temples
North America Central Area: Cardston Alberta and Kansas City Missouri temples
North America Northeast Area: Halifax Nova Scotia Temple (currently paused)
North America West Area: Kona Hawaii and Laie Hawaii temples
Pacific Area: Adelaide Australia, Apia Samoa, Brisbane Australia Hamilton New Zealand*, Melbourne Australia, Nuku’alofa Tonga, Papeete Tahiti, Perth Australia, Suva Fiji (currently paused) and Sydney Australia temples
More information
By the end of July, all temples in seven Church areas — Africa Central, Africa South, Africa West, Caribbean, North American Southwest, Pacific and Utah — will be operating in Phase 3 and offering all living and proxy ordinances.
Temple reopening status tracker — through May 31
With the announced changes, the Church will have — as of May 31 — the following breakdown of its 168 dedicated temples:
- 27 operating in Phase 3
- 82 operating in Phase 2-B
- 41 operating in Phase 2
- 4 operating in Phase 1
- 5 “paused” — 3 in Phase 3, 1 in Phase 2-B, 1 in Phase 2
- 1 still closed
- 8 closed for major renovations
Since early May 2020, the Church has announced weekly which temples would be moving to Phase 1, 2 or 3 status the following week.
On Dec. 7, 2020, the First Presidency identified four temples as the first to advance to Phase 3 of the Church’s four-phase reopening plan as early as Dec. 21, 2020. On that Dec. 21 date, the Taipei Taiwan Temple was the first to have proxy ordinances joining living ordinances as being performed on a limited basis.
An area-by-area listing of the current status of each of the Church’s 168 dedicated temples is available on the Church News’ temple reopening status tracker. Clicking on a temple name in the temple status tracker takes the user to that temple’s information page at temples.ChurchofJesusChrist.org where proxy ordinance work can be scheduled online.
More information on the latest announcements on temple reopenings can be found at TheChurchNews.com.