Difference between revisions of "Anchorage Alaska Temple"
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Revision as of 11:22, 26 November 2022
The Anchorage Alaska Temple is the 54th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1997, President Gordon B. Hinckley, announced the building of smaller Latter-day Saint temples. There are many areas of the Church that are remote and where membership is small and not likely to grow much in the future. So it was decided to begin building the smaller temples, the first being in Monticello, Utah, and the second being the Anchorage Alaska Temple. The goal of the Church is to have temples available and accessible to all its members. In the past, members remote from major Church populations have had to travel great distances at great cost in order to reach a temple. Many of these members could only make one temple trip in a lifetime. Before the dedication of the Anchorage Alaska Temple, Alaskans traveled at least 1,000 miles to attend the Seattle Washington Temple or the Cardston Alberta Temple.
After the groundbreaking of the Anchorage Temple in 1998 by Elder F. Melvin Hammond of the Seventy, the construction of the 6,800 square foot temple took only nine months. Brother Green, the temple architect, faced the challenge of finding ways to make this temple uniquely Alaskan. He prayed for inspiration, and on one of his trips to Salt Lake City, he noticed something on the Salt Lake Temple that he hadn't seen before—the seven stars of the Big Dipper pointing to the North Star. That symbol is found on the Alaskan flag, and is now depicted on the west side of the Anchorage Alaska Temple. Along with that, the temple walls are covered with gray and white quartz-flecked granite, and the temple design incorporates Alaskan motifs, such as likenesses of fir trees on the doorway pilasters. The stained glass is reminiscent of water, and stylized evergreens with patterns resembling native designs are used to adorn interior furnishings. [1]
President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Anchorage Alaska Temple on January 9, 1999, in seven sessions, with more than six thousand members from as far away as the Yukon braving the freezing weather.
- No matter how strong the cold winds of winter blast against our lives – surely the winds of adversity will come – we must keep the gospel flame in our hearts warm and bright. If we do that, then we will be as those whom the Savior spoke of as He concluded the Sermon on the Mount: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." [2]
The Anchorage Alaska Temple closed in April 2003 for a 10-month expansion project that added a second ordinance room, offices, new dressing rooms, a waiting room, laundry room, and elevator. After the remodeling that nearly doubled its size, President Hinckley rededicated the temple on February 8, 2004. The Anchorage Alaska Temple now has a total floor area of 11,937 square feet.
Notes
- "Gathering of Saints", by Jasper and Lommel, p 320
- LDS Church News, "Work Goes On"
