Wednesday March 17, 2021

Salt Lake Temple’s capacity to double with second baptistry, other changes

Several decisions about the Salt Lake Temple announced last week by the First Presidency did not get the same attention from media and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as they might have if made separately.

First and foremost, the bottom line is that the temple’s capacity will increase dramatically.

“We anticipate the temple will be able to accommodate more than double the usual number of patrons,” according to a Q&A document issued along with the church’s news release.

Several of the other underreported developments tie into that bottom line:

• Moving and doubling the baptistry

Before the coronavirus pandemic erupted, the baptismal fonts in many Latter-day Saint temples were in high demand.

“Temple baptistries are busier than ever. Some temples have even had to adjust their schedules to accommodate the increase in the number of young people attending the temple,” President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, said during the church's April 2016 general conference.

The increase in youth doing baptisms for deceased ancestors over the previous decade has led many to ask, “Have church leaders ever thought of adding a second font to a temple?”

Of course they have, and last week the First Presidency acted, announcing that an additional font will be added to the historic Salt Lake Temple during the ongoing four-year renovation project.

The two baptismal fonts will be located on the lower level of what will be a new temple annex north of the main temple. This is not unusual. Many temple baptistries are located outside temple buildings in annexes and connected by hallways. They are dedicated as part of the temple.

• Sealing rooms

The Salt Lake Temple is also increasing the number of sealing rooms from 13 to 23.

The largest of those rooms will accommodate marriage parties up to 75 people. In all, the temple will be able to perform more marriages with more wedding guests.

• Endowment capacity

The big headline last week was that the church is discontinuing the progressive, room-to-room endowments that provided instruction through presentations by live volunteers.

Less noticed is the announcement the temple now will have five instruction rooms that can accommodate a total of 750 people, approximately doubling the capacity for endowment ceremonies.

It’s also worth noting that before the temple closed for renovation, endowments sessions began once an hour, on the hour. With five instruction rooms, sessions will begin every 20-30 minutes, adding more flexibility for the increased number of temple patrons.

The current location of the baptistry will be moved, as noted above, to make room for the two new instruction rooms.

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Salt Lake, Manti temples to end live presentation of endowment sessions as more changes announced (March 12, 2021)

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What I’m Reading ...

News broke today that 7-foot-6 former BYU and NBA player Shawn Bradley is paralyzed after the bike he was riding was struck by a car. Godspeed to his family.

The First Presidency authorized a new position in the church, giving approval for the Europe Area to call women to be international area organization advisers. The Church News reported that the Europe Area has called six women to the positions, from which they will provide mentoring to stake and ward women leaders and participate in leadership councils. Learn more here.

Jenny Reeder is an excellent church historian whose work on the history of women in the church I’ve written about a few times in the past. Now she has published a strong chapter for the book “First: The Life and Faith of Emma Smith.” LDS Living excerpted the chapter, which focuses strongly on her efforts with compiling the church hymnbooks. It can be found here. I learned a lot I didn’t know.

As a boy, I loved playing in stake and region softball and basketball tournaments. We won three region tournaments on the Oregon/Washington border, but we weren’t so good in basketball. I was playing about a dozen or so years after the end of the All-Church tournaments, and I’ve always been fascinated by them. Here’s a look at the last team to win the All-Church basketball title by Jason Swensen.

Some Latter-day Saints have been doing well in the “American Idol” competition. Here’s a story on a brother-and-sister pair and another on a reluctant singer who has learned to follow her dream.

Football, or soccer to Americans, is something I learned to love on my mission to Germany in the 1980s. Jürgen Klinsmann was a star goal scorer at the time, and he’s written a new piece about two of today’s great strikers that puts the fun in football.

As I was writing about the endowment ceremony, I came across this interesting, thorough 2013 piece from the BYU Religious Studies Center called “The Evolution of Sacred Space: The Changing Environment of the Endowment.” It was quite helpful.

Hat tip to my friend Steve Kingsolver, who posted this delightful and joyful ESPN piece on the great baseball hitter George Brett. I love reading Brett stories, but I’d never heard this one, and it’s all true.

Behind the Scenes

A rendering of the second baptismal font planned for the Salt Lake Temple was released to the public on March 12, 2021. The font will sit in the new north annex to the temple being added as part of an extensive renovation. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)