The first chapel built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Angolan soil is now officially open.
Members of the Church in the African nation have met in borrowed or rented buildings for the past 38 years. Ground was broken on the new meetinghouse about 17 months ago to become a stake center and place of worship for three wards.
On Friday, Dec. 8, members and friends of the Church in Angola attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Elder Edward Dube, General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Africa South Area, presided at the event.
Angola’s Secretary for the Presidency of the Republic, Ondina Inácio, and National Institute for Religious Affairs Director Adilson de Almeida attended the event and helped Elder Dube cut the ribbon to officially open the new chapel.
In his remarks, Elder Dube spoke about how everything that is done in the Church points to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
He highlighted the pioneer history of the Church in Angola: “These Latter-day Saint members joined the Church overseas when they were studying or working, and the Church in Angola was then legally registered in 1992, with the first branch being organized in 1996.”
Members of the Church have been living in Angola since 1985. Many had been baptized while living for a short time in France or Portugal and then returned to Angola.
The Church was officially recognized in Angola in 1992, and the first branch organized in 1996. In 2010, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited and blessed Angola, and eight years later the Luanda Angola Stake was organized.
Church records show that a second stake for the country — the Viana Angola Stake — was created on Sunday, Dec. 10.
Luanda Angola Stake President Nuno A. Campos told the Church News in September that he expected the stake to split because of how quickly the gospel was spreading through the country. A new temple was announced for Luanda in October 2023 general conference.
Many people are recognizing that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ makes all the difference in their lives, President Campos said.
“Angola is a country that loves the gospel. … Something we would like to pass on to the world is that the Church has great potential here,” he said.
A Facebook post from the South Africa Area called the opening of the new chapel a “historic and momentous day” and said all are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at the building.
