Wichita Kansas Temple
The Wichita Kansas Temple was among those announced by President Russell M. Nelson during the April 2022 General Conference. This will be the state’s first temple.[1]
There are nearly 40,000 Latter-day Saints in about 75 congregations in Kansas, a state located near the center of the United States. Wichita is the most populous city in the state. Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first taught the native Shawnee and Delaware people in the Kansas area in 1831.
For those Church members emigrating from Europe during the mid-1880s, the Atchison, Kansas, area became a layover site on the journey up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in 1855. A camp called Mormon Grove was established and more than 100 acres were cultivated and crops planted for future immigrants. The camp only lasted one summer, but fulfilled its purpose. In 1882, missionaries arrived in Kansas and organized the Meridian Branch (a small congregation) on the border between Dickinson and Saline counties. Missionaries left Kansas temporarily after mob threats, but again preached in Kansas in 1887.[2]
Location
The Wichita Kansas Temple is currently in the planning stages. The Wichita Kansas Temple will be built on a 6.42-acre site located at Lot 1 Block 1 of The Moorings Plaza Fourth Addition, Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.
Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 9,950 square feet. Currently, Latter-day Saints in Kansas travel to the neighboring states of Oklahoma or Missouri to worship in temples, with the Kansas City Missouri Temple, which borders eastern Kansas, being the closest.[3]
Groundbreaking
Elder Steven R. Bangerter, First Counselor in the North America Central Area Presidency, presided at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wichita Kansas Temple.
Elder Steven R. Bangerter offered a prayer: “Please bless us this day that, as we turn this dirt as a symbol of a new beginning, that we may feel Thy Holy Spirit within our hearts as a manifestation of the divine mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we may each feel a new beginning with renewed commitment to live our lives according to His teachings and filled with His love.”
Several community and government leaders attended the event, including Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau and Rep. Stephen Owens from the Kansas State Legislature.
