Open House Scheduled August 5-22; Dedicatory Services August 26, 27
Public tours of the newly completed Houston Texas Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been announced. The First Presidency of the Church says tours begin Saturday, August 5, 2000, and will continue through Tuesday, August 22.
The tours will be available Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The last tour begins at 9:15 p.m. On Mondays, tours will be offered from 8:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., with the last tour beginning at 5:00 p.m., so Church members can participate in Family Home Evening, a Church program encouraging family togetherness. There are no tours on Sundays.
A public cornerstone ceremony will be at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 26, prior to the first dedicatory session.
Latter-day Saint temples are considered “Houses of the Lord” where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism, and other sacred ordinances focusing on the eternal potential of family relationships.
Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated Saturday, August 26, making it the 97th Church temple worldwide. Eight separate sessions will be held to accommodate as many as possible of the Latter-day Saints in the temple district.
The temple district includes the Texas Houston, Texas Houston East, Texas Houston South, Texas McAllen, and Texas San Antonio Missions; the Austin Texas, Austin Texas Oak Hills, Bay City Texas, Beaumont Texas, College Station Texas, Corpus Christi Texas, Cypress Texas, Friendswood Texas, Harlingen Texas, Houston Texas East, Houston Texas North, Houston Texas South, Houston Texas Spanish, Katy Texas, Kingwood Texas, McAllen Texas, Orange Texas, Round Rock Texas, San Antonio Texas, San Antonio Texas East, San Antonio Texas North, and San Antonio Texas West stakes and the Eagle Pass Texas and Laredo Texas districts of the Church. Previously, Church members from this area traveled to the Dallas Texas Temple. The temple will serve approximately 83,000 Latter-day Saints.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced his desire to make the blessings of the temple more accessible to Latter-day Saints, many of whom must now travel long distances. By year’s end, over 100 temples will be operating.
Nearly 11 million people belong to the worldwide Church in 162 countries and territories. Church members first arrived in Texas in the 1840s.
For more information and photos, see our on-line media kit in the News Media Resources section of www.lds.org
