The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released the site for the Kananga Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple.
The sites and accompanying location map were first published Monday, April 15, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. More information — such as an exterior rendering and date for groundbreaking — will be released later.
The update on the two temples was part of the Church’s full day of temple news. Monday started with the media day for the Layton Utah Temple and the release of a video and interior and exterior photos of that house of the Lord. Later in the afternoon, along with the Kananga site, the Church also announced the groundbreaking date for the Cleveland Ohio Temple and the open house and dedication dates for the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple and the Mendoza Argentina Temple.
Plans call for a one-story temple of approximately 11,000 square feet to be built on a 1.6-acre site located at Avenue Ilunga and N1 in Kananga, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Patron housing and arrival facilities will be onsite as well.
President Russell M. Nelson identified Kananga as a location for a future house of the Lord when he announced 13 temple locations on Oct. 3, 2021, at the conclusion of the October 2021 general conference.
It will be the third of four temples in the central Africa country, with the first being the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, which was dedicated in 2019. A second house of the Lord in Lubumbashi has been under construction since its August 2022 groundbreaking, and a temple for Mbuji-Mayi was announced in October 2023.
With the first missionaries arriving in 1986, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to more than 115,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 290 congregations. On July 1, 2023, the Church created a new mission headquartered in Kananga, the fifth in the nation.
