SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah-based Mormon church will build a new temple in Colorado, one of three in North America, its president, Thomas S. Monson, said Saturday.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will build temples in Fort Collins; Meridian, Idaho; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
This will be the second temple in Colorado; a temple in Denver was completed in 1986. The first congregation of the Church in Colorado was organized in January 1897. As of October 2010, there were nearly 140,000 members in the state.
President Russell McClure, who presides over nine congregations in the Fort Collins area, was in Salt Lake City when Monson announced the new temples.
“It was wonderful,” McClure said. “There is just a kind of electric feeling.”
Currently, members of the church in Fort Collins have to drive to Denver to attend temple, McClure said. Most members try to go once every month, but some make the trip every week.
“Members of the church are elated, and I think the community will also be very enthusiastic,” McClure said. “Temples are beautiful, they’re landscaped well, they’re really a jewel in the community.”
The new temples “will certainly be a blessing to our members in those areas,” said Monson, who shared the news with members on the first day of the faith’s semiannual general conference.
The 14.1-million-member church currently has 134 operating temples worldwide, most in the U.S. Another 26 temples are planned or under construction.
Temples are considered sacred to Latter-day Saints and are used for religious rituals including proxy baptisms, marriage ceremonies and other rites, often referred to as “ordinances,” which are designed to strengthen church teachings.
The towering white buildings differ from the church meeting houses used for regular Sunday services. Temples are closed on Sundays and open only to church members considered worthy — a designation achieved through tithe paying and a faithful adherence to the standards of conduct expected by the church.
