A groundbreaking impact

A reader who follows me on Facebook asked me a smart question on Messenger last week:

What percentage of church members or wards have returned to meeting together in buildings on Sundays?

The answer is that the localized decision-making authority baked into the return-to-worship directions provided by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve makes it impossible to say. The framework created maximum flexibility for following local health regulations and sensitively managing the demographics of each congregation’s membership.

Some minority of wards and branches are meeting weekly while taking great precautions, from face coverings to the use of plastic water cups for each piece of bread in the sacrament service. However, it seems that many who are meeting are doing so once a month, sometimes splitting a congregation into two meetings to help maintain physical distancing. A large number of wards have not returned to meeting at all, according to my unscientific survey of church members and insiders.

That information eased the reader’s sense of missing out, but it also got me thinking about other pieces of the larger picture of reopening. Combined with an assignment I have this weekend, I decided to survey what’s happened in 2020 with temple groundbreakings, open houses and dedications.

It turned out to be very interesting. The pandemic, for one thing, has disrupted temple construction far less than it has the Sunday church schedule or temple worship. Here’s what I found.

Groundbreakings in 2020:
Some temple groundbreakings have been postponed this year due to the pandemic, but overall the church has continued to begin construction on new temples with scaled-down ceremonies.

For example, last October the groundbreaking for the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple drew 1,500 to the site while tens of thousands watched by video at local meetinghouses.

This year, groundbreakings have included only a handful of people on site with no video piped to meetinghouses.

“We recognize that we are a small gathering because of the conditions that are still present in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world that limit our ability to gather in larger groups and so we’re spaced from one another in what we refer to as social distancing,” Philippines Area President Evan Schmutz said at the Alabang Philippines Temple groundbreaking on June 4.

Alabang was one of five groundbreakings held in the spring and early summer with local church leaders presiding over small gatherings. The other four in that group were: Richmond Virginia Temple, Layton Utah Temple, Auckland New Zealand Temple and the Feather River California Temple.

Despite the pandemic, only one of those groundbreakings was postponed. All but one of those ceremonies has been filmed, and the video is available on newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org.

There are some quite interesting developments in the upcoming list of groundbreakings, with apostles scheduled to preside over three of them, even though they have not begun to resume the regular travels of their ministries. Here’s what’s ahead:

• Sept. 5: Orem Utah Temple and San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple
• Sept. 26: Brasília Brazil Temple
• Oct. 9: Salta Argentina Temple (postponed from Aug. 15)
• Oct. TBA: Taylorsville Utah Temple (Elder Gerrit W. Gong will preside)
• Nov. TBA: Red Cliffs Utah Temple (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland presiding)
• Nov. TBA: Bentonville Arkansas Temple (Elder David A. Bednar presiding remotely)
• Nov. TBA: McAllen Texas Temple

Open houses and dedications in 2020:
Postponements have been the rule this year when it comes to holding open houses and dedicating temples. Here’s what is on hold:

— Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple open house, which had been scheduled from April 17-May 2, and the dedication, which was to take place on May 17. (Postponement announced March 18)

— Washington D.C. Temple open house, which was scheduled from Sept. 24-Oct. 31, and rededication, which was set for Dec. 13. (Postponement announced June 17)

— Winnipeg Manitoba Temple open house (would have been Oct. 22-31) and dedication (was to be Nov. 8 by Elder Gong) were postponed on Monday.

Temple dedications in 2020:
Elder Ronald A. Rasband dedicated the Durban South Africa Temple on Feb. 16. The open house was held from Jan. 22-Feb. 1. The building is the fifth Latter-day Saint temple on the continent of Africa.

New temples announced in 2020:
President Russell M. Nelson announced plans for eight temples: Bahía Blanca, Argentina; Tallahassee, Florida; Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Benin City, Nigeria; Syracuse, Utah; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

Temples under construction in 2020:
The Temple Department and Special Projects Department are busy.

The church now has 19 temples under construction, though that number includes the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple, which is complete. 

That number will jump to 27 with the upcoming groundbreakings. Though none have been announced by the First Presidency, additional groundbreakings are still possible this year.

Eight temples are under renovation — Washington D.C. Temple (complete); Tokyo Japan Temple, Mesa Arizona Temple, Hamilton New Zealand Temple, Hong Kong China Temple; St. George Utah Temple, Columbus Ohio Temple, Salt Lake Temple.

As you can see, the current number of 168 operating temples (eight of them under renovation) is soon to grow significantly.

Following up on last week’s newsletter, the Catholic News Agency reported that the Oregon Catholic Press will reprint two books so it can remove the Angel Moroni from their covers.

I’ve been reading a ton about the pandemic era return of college students to campuses. Where I live, in Provo, the city council overrode the mayor’s veto of a mask mandate because of concerns that the return of 70,000 students at BYU and Utah Valley University could lead to outbreaks. The Wall Street Journal published a report about how some states, Utah among the leaders, have large numbers of students coming from other states with worse COVID-19 conditions. The Washington Post looked at the alarm some feel over the number of students going to large parties without face coverings or physical distancing. Today’s house editorial in the Journal cited statistics that show the second wave of the pandemic is waning, but many remain concerned that students traveling to colleges across the country and interacting without following guidelines will lead to renewed outbreaks. We’ll know soon.

The story by The Associated Press on Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk at BYU last week ran across the country with headlines like, “Mormon leader backs peaceful efforts to combat racism.” My focus on sharing that is not the use of the nickname in the headline. Rather, it is on the way Elder Cook’s talk was framed.

A friend and colleague from our days together at BYU’s student newspaper, The Daily Universe, recently shared this 2006 general conference talk by Elder Robert S. Wood titled, “Instruments of the Lord’s Peace.” It is timely today for its wisdom about how we speak and act in an era of social media and division. I highly recommend it.

Here’s a story on a BYU grad who is making religious art more inclusive.

The Church News published some striking charts comparing the church from the year President Nelson was born to today.

I’m excited for BYU to play Navy on ESPN on prime-time television on Labor Day evening. Leading up to the game, I’ve enjoyed reading about BYU’s strengths, how football independence is paying off this year, how BYU declared independence 10 years ago and on the kind of TV exposure the Cougars have had since independence.

By the way, the Latter-day Saint BYU alum who coached the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl title last winter received his championship ring along with the rest of the team this week. See what it looks like.

Some other research led me to stumble on the obituary of another journalist with a familiar first name, Tad Szulc. His name was short for Tadeusz. Mine isn’t short for anything. Szulc was famous for breaking the story on the Bay of Pigs invasion.