Tarawa Kiribati Temple
In the final session of the 190th semiannual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to construct a temple in Tarawa, Kiribati. The Tarawa Kiribati Temple will be the first temple built in Kiribati and the second built in Micronesia, following the Yigo Guam Temple (2021).
On 19 May 2021, the location of the Tarawa Kiribati Temple was announced as a 0.80-acre site located at Ambo, South Tarawa, Kiribati. It will stand across from the Kiribati House of Parliament. An official exterior rendering for the temple was also released on 19 May 2021.
Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet with an end-spire. Additional ancillary facilities will be located 450 meters west of the temple site. Plans for a meetinghouse and patron housing facility are in development.
Kiribati is a nation comprised of 32 atolls and one island with half of the population living on Tarawa atoll where Church-operated Moroni High School is located. There are nearly 21,000 Kiribatian Latter-day Saints, approximately one-sixth of the population, belonging to two stakes and three districts. The Saints of Kiribati currently travel well over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to participate in ordinance work at the Suva Fiji Temple.
No groundbreaking date has been announced.
