Willamette Valley Oregon Temple
During the April 2021 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson announced Eugene, Oregon, as a temple location. It was one of 20 sites for new temples, the most announced by the Church in a single day.
On Thursday, 2 September 2021, just after five months of being announced, the Church officially released the site location, a rendering, and the new name for the temple. The official name for the new temple is the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
Oregon is home to more than 150,000 Latter-day Saints and more than 300 congregations.
The Willamette Valley Oregon Temple will be built on a 10.5-acre site at the intersection of International Boulevard and Corporate Way in Springfield, a suburb of Eugene. The exterior rendering reflects the initial plans for a single-story temple of approximately 30,000 square feet.
The temple will serve more than 30,000 Latter-day Saints and be the third temple in the state, following the Portland Oregon Temple (dedicated in 1989) and the Medford Oregon Temple (dedicated in 2000).
Of the 20 new temple locations identified on 4 April 2021, the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple is the last of the nine United States temples to have its site and rendering released. The others are located in Helena, Montana, Casper, Wyoming, Grand Junction, Colorado, Farmington, New Mexico, Burley, Idaho, Elko, Nevada, Yorba Linda, California, and Smithfield, Utah.
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Groundbreaking for the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple
Elder Valeri V. Cordón, first counselor in the North America West Area presidency, presided at the groundbreaking for the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple and offered the dedicatory prayer on the site and the construction processes on Saturday, October 29, 2022. The 30,000-square-foot temple will be constructed on a 10.5-acre site at the intersection of International Boulevard and Corporate Way in Springfield. Construction is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 31, and is anticipated to last two to three years.
- “We pray that the temple will be a beacon of hope and peace that inspires this community to come unto Christ, even in its construction phase,” said Elder Cordón in his prayer.
- He also paid tribute to the Latter-day Saints of Oregon, both from the past and in the present.
- “We acknowledge the first Saints who came to this valley to live peacefully in their humble circumstances,” Elder Cordón said. “We are grateful for the faithful Saints who live in this area, for their sacrifice, devotion and obedience.”[1]
President Brant Cooper, president of the Eugene Oregon Stake, said on the occasion: "Temples for us are even more meaningful and more sacred places where we're able to make what we call covenants with God and remind ourselves of why we're here."
