The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the upcoming rededication of the Manti Utah Temple will be done in just one late-afternoon session, with no adjustments to regular Sunday worship services for the wards and branches in the temple district.
The single rededication session is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, April 21, according to the announcement first published Monday, Feb. 12, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
It was one of the day’s several temple announcements, along with the dedication and open house dates for the new Casper Wyoming Temple, the planned closure of the Orlando Florida Temple for extensive renovations, and the exterior renderings of the Natal Brazil and Teresina Brazil temples.
The Manti temple rededication session will be broadcast to all units within the Manti temple district, with the units expected to hold their standard two-hour Church meetings at their regular times that day.
The First Presidency previously announced the April 21 dedication date — along with the temple’s media day on March 11 and the public open house running from March 14 through April 5 — nearly four months ago, on Nov. 20, 2023. The original announcement noted that additional information regarding the rededication — including the times of sessions and who will be presiding — would be announced at a future date.
An assigned presiding Church leader has yet to be announced.
The single-session rededication is different that the recent two-session dedications and rededications recently held, including the rededication of the St. George Utah Temple in December of last year and the dedications of the Lima Peru Los Olivos and Orem Utah temples last month.
For those three houses of the Lord, dedication or rededication sessions were held at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and regular Sunday services were canceled that day within the temple districts as the sessions were broadcast to local meetinghouses.
And even as late as the San Juan Puerto Rico Temple dedication in January 2023, three Sunday dedicatory sessions were being conducted.
All temples scheduled for dedication after the Manti temple’s rededication — including the Casper Wyoming Temple and its Oct. 13 date, which was announced on Monday, Feb. 12, the same day as the Manti rededication update — will have two dedicatory sessions.
The temple’s history and renovation
During April 2019 general conference, Church President Russell M. Nelson announced the renovation of several pioneer-era temples — including the 74,792-square-foot Manti temple, which required mechanical upgrades and technology to allow the ordinances and covenants to be administered in multiple languages.
On May 1, 2021, President Nelson announced plans to preserve “the pioneer craftsmanship, artwork and character” of the Manti temple — as well as plans to construct a second temple in Utah’s Sanpete Valley, in the city of Ephraim. A closure date of Oct. 1, 2021, was set to start the multiyear renovations.
On June 25, 1875, Church leaders announced plans to first construct the Manti temple. Church President Brigham Young broke ground April 25, 1877, and President Wilford Woodruff, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later the Church’s fourth President, dedicated the temple on May 21, 1888. “Show favor unto all who have helped to forward this work by good wishes, good words or good deeds,” he prayed.
Almost a century later, in June 1985, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency, rededicated the temple following recent renovations. Asking the Lord to sanctify the temple, he prayed that “all who will enter it through the years to come, may feel the presence of Thy Spirit and recognize that they are in holy precincts.”
The Manti temple was the Church of Jesus Christ’s fifth constructed in the latter days and is third oldest still in operation. The Kirtland Temple is owned by the Community of Christ, and the original Nauvoo Temple was left behind by the Saints who were forced to migrate to the Salt Lake Valley; it was later destroyed by fire and a tornado.
Temples in Utah were later built and dedicated — in order — in St. George, Logan, Manti and Salt Lake before the end of the 19th century.
Following President Nelson’s April 2019 announcement, the St. George Utah Temple was the first to close and begin renovations, in November 2019, as well as the first to be rededicated, on Dec. 10, 2023.
The Salt Lake Temple closed in December 2019 for extensive renovations and seismic upgrading. The latest projection for completion is for 2026.
Temples in Utah
The four pioneer-era houses of the Lord — the St. George, Logan, Manti and Salt Lake temples — are among the 28 total in Utah, which is home to the Church’s worldwide headquarters and nearly 2.2 million Latter-day Saints.
Utah’s other dedicated and currently operating temples are the Bountiful, Brigham City, Cedar City, Draper, Jordan River, Monticello, Mount Timpanogos, Ogden, Oquirrh Mountain, Orem, Payson, Provo, Provo City Center, Saratoga Springs and Vernal temples.
The Red Cliffs Utah Temple in St. George is scheduled to be dedicated on Sunday, March 24; the Taylorsville Utah Temple on Sunday, June 2; and the Layton Utah Temple on Sunday, June 16.
Six other Utah temples are under construction — Deseret Peak, Ephraim, Heber Valley, Lindon, Smithfield and Syracuse.
