On Sunday, June 7, President D. Todd Christofferson will dedicate the Yorba Linda California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It will be the second house of the Lord in Orange County, California, following the Newport Beach California Temple.
The public is currently invited to tour Yorba Linda’s sacred edifice during its open house, which began April 30 and will conclude May 23.
President Christofferson — the second counselor in the First Presidency — will be accompanied at next month’s dedication by Elder Steven R. Bangerter, executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Susan Bangerter; Elder I. Raymond Egbo and his wife, Sister Comfort Egbo; and Elder Takashi Wada and his wife, Sister Naomi Wada.
The 10 a.m. session will be broadcast to all units in the temple district and rebroadcast at 2 p.m., according to a May 21 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
After its June 7 dedication, the new temple will serve more than 21,500 Latter-day Saints in the Anaheim, Brea, Chino, Hacienda Heights, Orange, Santa Ana, Whittier and Yorba Linda areas.
The Yorba Linda temple is scheduled to be dedicated on the same day and at the same time as the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple’s dedication, with the two becoming the Church’s 218th and 219th dedicated temples worldwide.
These two houses of the Lord were also announced on the same day, April 4, 2021 — meaning they’ll have the same timing from announcement to dedication, down to the very hour.
About the Yorba Linda temple
On April 4, 2021, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple for Yorba Linda. It’s planned to be California’s ninth dedicated house of the Lord.
To start the construction phase of the Yorba Linda temple, a groundbreaking ceremony was held June 18, 2022. Elder Mark A. Bragg — a General Authority Seventy and then the president of the North America West Area — presided over the ceremony and offered the dedicatory prayer on the site.
Referencing Yorba Linda’s motto — “Land of gracious living” — Elder Bragg said that “this house of the Lord will represent the highest in gracious living, and those who enter will leave with a higher commitment to gracious living. … We commit to being neighbors of gracious living.”
The Church in California
California — one of the western U.S. states and located along the Pacific Ocean coast — currently has 12 houses of the Lord operating, under construction or renovation, and announced.
Eight have already been dedicated: Los Angeles (in 1956), Oakland (1964), San Diego (1993), Fresno (2000), Redlands (2003), Newport Beach (2005), Sacramento (2006) and Feather River (2023).
Of note, the San Diego temple was closed in July 2023 for extensive renovations and will soon be rededicated on Aug. 23.
The Modesto California Temple is currently under construction, since its October 2023 groundbreaking. A final two houses of the Lord are in planning stages: the Sunnyvale and Bakersfield temples, both announced in April 2023.
Latter-day Saints first arrived in California on July 31, 1846, in what was then Yerba Buena. The company of around 230 people tripled the population of Yerba Buena and helped build it into the prosperous city of San Francisco.
On July 6, 1851, the San Bernardino Stake was organized as California’s first. Eight California stakes were created in the 1930s, five in the 1940s, and 30 in the 1950s.
Today, California is home to more than 725,000 Church members in almost 1,100 wards and branches. This makes it the second U.S. state with the most Latter-day Saints, after Utah.
California currently has 16 missions. On July 1, three more missions will be created in the state — headquartered in Oceanside, Ontario and Victorville. These three cities are within a 60-mile radius of Yorba Linda.
Yorba Linda California Temple
Address: 17130 Bastanchury Road, Yorba Linda, California 92886
Announced: April 4, 2021, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: June 18, 2022, presided over by Elder Mark A. Bragg, a General Authority Seventy
Public open house: April 30 through May 23, 2026, excluding Sundays
To be dedicated: June 7, 2026
Property size: 5.46 acres
Building size: 30,872 square feet
Building height: 70 feet (including the spire)
