Nashville Tennessee Temple
The Nashville Tennessee Temple is the 84th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After five and a half years of planning and construction, the Nashville Tennessee Temple is finally completed and members are grateful. The original site for the temple was changed because after three years of trying to gain approval, a court of law decided not to approve zoning and the Church of Jesus Christ did not appeal the decision.
Instead, a smaller Latter-day Saint temple than was planned was built next to an existing meetinghouse about twenty miles southwest of Nashville.
During the temple open house held May 6-13, 2000, almost 25,000 people toured the temple. Nonmembers were given a chance to see what a Latter-day Saint temple looks like inside. Buryl McClurg, the newly called temple president said, “They have been so good and so kind, so generous in their comments about what they see. I think it’s been a unifying kind of experience." [1]
James E. Faust dedicated the Nashville Tennessee Temple on 21 May 2000. During the dedicatory prayer he said, “This sacred structure stands as a monument before the world of our belief in the immortality of the human soul and that a great work is going forward on the other side of the veil to bring blessings to those who will accept the ordinances which will be performed in their behalf in this Thy house.” [1]
The temple's exterior is constructed from Imperial Danby White Marble and has a single spire topped with the familiar statue of the angel Moroni. The Nashville Tennessee Temple has a total of 10,700 square feet, two ordinance rooms, and two sealing rooms. About a month previous to the dedication of the temple in Nashville, another Latter-day Saint temple had been dedicated in Memphis. On April 3, 2022, Church president Russell M. Nelson announced that a temple would be built in Knoxville. There are over 57,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ living in Tennessee.
Notes
- "News of the Church," Ensign, Aug. 2000, 74
