Locations announced for Birmingham England Temple and Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has revealed the sites for the Birmingham England Temple and the Cagayan de Oro Philippines.
The Birmingham England Temple will be the third temple in the United Kingdom, which includes almost 187,000 members across 315 congregations. It will be located on a 2.7-acre site at 185-187 Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, according to a press release obtained by the Deseret News.
The plans indicate that the Birmingham England Temple will be a one-story temple with patron housing and arrival facilities. The total floor area will be 10,800 feet. A groundbreaking date has not been announced yet.
Related
President Russell M. Nelson, the prophet and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ, announced the temple in the worldwide conference for church members during his April 2022 talk “Now is The Time.”
“Positive spiritual momentum increases as we worship in the temple and grow in our understanding of the magnificent breadth and depth of blessings we receive there,” President Nelson said. “I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple. Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”
Temples are sacred and important to Latter-day Saints. On Sundays, members go to meetinghouse to participate in sacrament meeting. Members attend temples to make promises with God.
In addition to announcing the location of the Birmingham England Temple, the First Presidency also announced where the Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple will be.
The site for the Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple stretches across 4.9 acres. It is at Lot 2163-c and Lot 2163-d Rosario Limketkai Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis.
The Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple will be a two-story temple of around 18,449 feet. There will be a separate building for an arrival center, patron housing and a distribution center.
It’ll be among 12 other temples in the country. The first temple in the Philippines was the Manila Philippines Temple, which was dedicated in 1984 by church president and prophet Gordon B. Hinckley.
President Hinckley spoke about the dedication in his October 1985 general conference talk “Rejoice in This Great Era of Temple Building.” He recalled opening the mission in the Philippines in 1961 and seeing quick growth in the area.
“In less than a quarter of a century, from the one native member we found in 1961, the church has grown to well over a hundred thousand,” President Hinckley said. “These are my friends, the people I love, among whom I have worked and to whom I have taught the gospel. The opening of the temple represented the fulness of gospel opportunity for them, the longed-for fruition of their dreams.”
In addition to the two temples mentioned above, there are 11 others in the Philippines that are in the process of being built or are already in operation: Alabang, Bacolod, Cebu City, Davao, Iloilo, Laoag, Naga, Santiago, Tacloban City, Tuguegarao City and Urdaneta.
Across the Philippines, there are more than 850,000 members in 1,275 congregations. It’s considered one of the fastest areas of growth in the Church of Jesus Christ.
