Ground has been broken for the first temple in Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa. Elder Thierry K. Mutombo, president of the Church’s Africa Central Area, presided over the Saturday, Aug. 23, groundbreaking of the Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple.
The closest house of the Lord to Brazzaville is currently the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, a distance of approximately 3 miles away across the Congo River. The trip must be done by boat across an international border and is expensive for many members.
Once dedicated, the Brazzaville temple will serve Latter-day Saints in Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea, according to an Aug. 24 news release on the Church’s Africa Newsroom.
Ground was broken for the Brazzaville temple the same day as the groundbreakings of the Tampa Florida and Vancouver Washington temples. Information about the ceremonies was published in an Aug. 23 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
After a choir sang “I Love To See the Temple,” Elder Mutombo, a General Authority Seventy, expressed gratitude to everyone joining the ceremony. “We are grateful to the government officials who wisely uphold the principles of religious freedom.”
He then encouraged attendees to grasp the spiritual significance of the event: “Many people are not here today and may not even know what has occurred,” he said. “They may not fully understand the importance of building a house of the Lord in this country.”
Elder Mutombo added that something special happens when the house of the Lord is built somewhere. “The powers of heaven are manifested in the sacred ordinances performed in the temple, and the Republic of Congo will never be the same again, because everywhere temples are built, the influence of the devil diminishes and the Light of Christ is elevated.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the site and construction process, Elder Mutombo prayed: “Under the direction of Thy living Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, in the name of Thy Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the holy Melchizedek Priesthood, which I hold, I dedicate and consecrate this land to Thee. May it be holy and sacred, intended for the construction of Thy holy house here in Brazzaville.”
About the temple and Church in Republic of the Congo
President Nelson announced a temple for Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, on April 3, 2022. It was one of 17 temple sites he identified in that general conference, totaling 100 houses of the Lord he’d announced up to that point in his tenure as Prophet.
Planned as a one-story building of approximately 10,000 square feet, the Brazzaville temple will be built on Avenue de la Republique (T-Ville), ex rue de Lamothe 103 et 109, Bacongo, Brazzaville.
Patron housing and arrival facilities will also be built on the 1.5-acre site. The Republic of the Congo is located on the equator, in west-central Africa.
The country’s first branch, the Makelekele Branch, was organized in Brazzaville on June 9, 1991. The government of the Republic of the Congo granted legal recognition to the Church just months later, on Dec. 23, 1991.
On Aug. 24, 1992 — one day shy of 33 years before the temple groundbreaking — Elder Richard G. Scott and then-Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were the first general authorities to visit the Republic of the Congo.
The Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Stake was created a decade later on Oct. 19, 2003. Jean Patrice Milembolo, the stake’s first president, had also been the first Makelekele Branch president.
Today, almost 14,000 Latter-day Saints reside in nearly 40 congregations in the Republic of the Congo.
