SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 23, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking date for the Layton Utah Temple.
Groundbreaking dates were also announced for the the Richmond Virginia Temple and the Alabang Philippines Temple, the LDS Church said in a news release Thursday.
The groundbreaking for the Layton Utah Temple will be held Saturday, May 30, the news release said.
Attendance at the event will be by invitation only, but the groundbreaking service will be broadcast to stake centers in the temple district. Utah Area President Elder Craig C. Christensen will preside.
The Layton Temple, first announced in April 2018 by President Russell M. Nelson, will be built at the corner of Oak Hills Drive and Rosewood Lane. Plans call for a three-story temple of more than 87,000 square feet.
The groundbreaking for the Richmond Virginia Temple will be held Saturday, April 11.
The Richmond Temple will be built at 10915 Staples Mill Road in Glen Allen, Virginia, a suburban neighborhood just outside Richmond, the news release said. The structure will be a two-story building of just over 36,000 square feet. An adjacent 16,000-square-foot meetinghouse will also be built. The temple will serve Latter-day Saints in Virginia, eastern West Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
The Richmond Temple was announced in April 2018 by Nelson and will be the first in Virginia.
Church leaders will break ground for the Alabang Philippines Temple on Saturday, May 2.
In April 2017, then-President Thomas S. Monson announced that this temple would be built in the greater Manila, Philippines, area.
The Philippines has seven temples announced or completed. There are nearly 800,000 Latter-day Saints in this country of more than 107 million people.
Utah currently has 17 operating temples. In addition to Layton, other announced temples will be in Orem, Saratoga Springs, Taylorsville, Tooele Valley and Washington County.
