News Releases Official news releases from the Church Public Tours Announced For Boston Temple 30 August 2000 Open House Scheduled for Church's 100th Temple. EXTRA Boston Massachusetts Temple Fact Sheet History of the Church in Massachusetts Church has 168-year ties to Massachusetts Photos of Boston Temple Official Temple List Frequently Asked Questions Families Can Be Forever The Family: A Proclamation to the World Public tours of the newly completed Boston Massachusetts Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been announced. The First Presidency of the Church says tours begin Tuesday, August 29, and run through Tuesday, September 5, 2000. Tours will resume on Saturday, September 9 to September 23, (8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m). Tours will be held for a half day on Sunday, September 17, otherwise there are no tours on Sundays. Mondays, tours will conclude at 5:45 p.m. so Latter-day Saints can participate in Family Home Evening, a Church program encouraging family togetherness. A public cornerstone ceremony will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 1, 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 Sunday, October 1, 2000, making it the 100th Church temple worldwide. Four 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 Massachusetts Boston, the New Hampshire Manchester and the Connecticut Hartford Missions; the Hartford Connecticut, New Haven Connecticut, Albany New York, Augusta Maine, Bangor Maine, Boston Massachusetts, Cambridge Massachusetts, Hingham Massachusetts, Springfield Massachusetts, Concord New Hampshire, Exeter New Hampshire, Nashua New Hampshire, Brooklyn New York, New York New York, Newburgh New York, Plainview New York, Westchester New York, Yorktown New York, and Providence Rhode Island stakes; and the Lynbrook New York, Richmond Hill New York and Queens New York districts of the Church. Previously, Church members from this area traveled to the Palmyra Temple and the Montreal Temple. This temple will serve approximately 69,000 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, 100 temples will be operating. Nearly 11 million people belong to the worldwide Church in 162 countries and territories. Church members first arrived in Boston in the 1830s.