Iloilo Philippines Temple
In his closing remarks at the 193rd Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to construct a temple in Iloilo City, Philippines.
The Iloilo Philippines Temple will be the 12th temple in the country. Iloilo City is the capital of Iloilo province in the central Philippines. The city is about 400 miles south of Manila. There are more than 850,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 1,275 congregations in the Philippines. Since the country officially opened for missionary work in 1961, Church growth has been among the fastest in the world.[1]
President Joseph Fielding Smith, worldwide leader of the Church, dedicated the Philippine Islands for the preaching of the gospel at Clark Air Base on 21 August 1955. The Philippines became part of the Southern Far East Mission of the Church.
After much effort, legal registration was finally granted to the Church six years later, and the appropriate clearances were secured to allow full-time missionaries to enter the country. Consequently, in the early morning of 28 April 1961, around 100 Latter-day Saints gathered on the grounds of the American War Memorial Cemetery at Fort Bonifacio as Elder Gordon B. Hinckley (then an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) rededicated the Philippines for missionary work.[2]
Location
The Iloilo Philippines Temple is currently in the planning stages. No location has been announced.
External Links
- Official Iloilo Philippines Temple page
- Iloilo Philippines Temple page
- What is the Purpose of the Temple
- What Are Temples?
- Church News, “Inside Church Headquarters: The location, design and construction of Latter-day Saint temples
- Church News, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Celebrates 60 Years in the Philippines"
