The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced a Saturday, Aug. 9, groundbreaking date for the Winchester Virginia Temple — to be the state’s second dedicated house of the Lord.
Elder Robert M. Daines, a General Authority Seventy and currently second counselor in the North America Northeast Area presidency, will preside over the ceremony.
The groundbreaking date was first published Monday, June 16, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
About the Winchester temple and Church in Virginia
President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Winchester, Virginia, on April 2, 2023. It was one of 15 temple locations he identified at the close of April 2023 general conference.
The Winchester temple, planned as a single-story edifice of 30,000 square feet, will be built on a 11.27-acre site at 200 Merrimans Lane, Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia.
Virginia is home to one other operating temple, the Richmond Virginia Temple. It was dedicated by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, on May 7, 2023. In his dedicatory prayer, President Oaks pleaded, “Please bless all who worthily serve in Thy holy temples that they may participate with joy and understanding, that Thy work will go forward in power to fulfill Thy purposes for all Thy children.”
Apart from the Richmond and Winchester temples, two houses of the Lord are in planning and design stages: the Roanoke Virginia Temple, announced in 2023, and the Norfolk Virginia Temple, announced in 2025.
Virginia’s first stake was established in Richmond in 1957. The Church grew quickly in the state during the 1970s and 1980s, and 10 new stakes were established in this time.
Today, approximately 100,000 Latter-day Saints live in Virginia and comprise over 210 congregations.
