Temples

A first for the Church of Jesus Christ: 3 temples to be dedicated on same day — Sunday, Sept. 17

A look at the 3 dedications — in Brasília, Bentonville and Moses Lake — and revisiting past double-dedication days

By Scott Taylor Sept 13, 2023 4 p.m. EDT

Elder David A. Bednar and Sister Susan Bednar, conclude a media tour of the Bentonville Arkansas Temple

Temples

A first for the Church of Jesus Christ: 3 temples to be dedicated on same day — Sunday, Sept. 17

A look at the 3 dedications — in Brasília, Bentonville and Moses Lake — and revisiting past double-dedication days

By Scott Taylor Sept 13, 2023 4 p.m. EDT

Brasília, Brazil ... Bentonville, Arkansas ... Moses Lake, Washington — the three cities are about as different and diverse as can be.

But the three cities — or, more specifically, the houses of the Lord found in each — will be forever linked and underscored in the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That’s because the Brasília Brazil Temple, the Bentonville Arkansas Temple and the Moses Lake Washington Temple will all be dedicated on the same day — Sunday, Sept. 17 — in two dedicatory sessions at each site, with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presiding.

Visitors prepare to enter the Brasilia Brazil Temple at night as part of the open house media day.

While two temples have been dedicated on the same day several times, this marks the first time that three dedications have been scheduled for the same day — all within four hours of each other.

The first day of two dedications came in 1999, with the double dedications repeated several times the following year. The next — and most recent — time came more than two decades later, less than a year ago, on Nov. 20, 2022.

And two same-day dedications are planned for next month as well.

The scheduling overlap shouldn’t be a surprise, given the Church’s 315 total dedicated, under-construction or announced houses of the Lord — including the 133 temples so far announced by President Russell M. Nelson in the five-plus years he has been President of the Church. The Bentonville and Moses Lake temples are included in that 133, both announced in 2019.

3 cities, temples and dedications

Brasília — the capital of South America’s largest nation — is only six decades old after Brazil moved its seat of government and federal district in 1960 to a more central locale in the country’s interior. Bentonville — recently named “the Capital of Cool” by the Wall Street Journal — is a small Ozarks town having blossomed into a metropolitan area that has everything from corporate headquarters to museums to mountain biking. And Moses Lake has seen its agricultural heritage and 1940s Air Force base transition to a central Washington city now known as much for manufacturing, technology and world-class aeronautics.

The three have the local and regional Church membership to sustain temple operations and work, with one-quarter of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assigned to the three Western Hemisphere sites to each dedicate a new house of the Lord on the same Sunday.

Related Stories

The day’s dedications begin with the Brasília Brazil Temple, to be dedicated by Elder Neil L. Andersen in sessions at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Brasília Standard Time.

For Elder Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, it is the latest return to Brazil — where he presided in the early 2000s over what was then the Church’s Brazil South Area (today, the country is within the singular administrative Brazil Area) and where he has traveled back for ministries and meetings many times since. In March of this year, Elder and Sister Andersen visited the Brasília temple before meeting with the first lady of Brazil, Rosângela Lula da Silva.

Two hours later and nearly 4,700 miles to the northwest, Elder David A. Bednar will dedicate the Bentonville Arkansas Temple, with the two dedicatory sessions, beginning at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

The Bentonville Arkansas Temple in June 2023.

It will mark the third temple-milestone event involving Elder Bednar and this house of the Lord in northwestern Arkansas. In November 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, he presided remotely — via videoconference — over the Bentonville temple’s groundbreaking services; in June of this year, he returned for the temple’s media day and start of special-guest tours. As an Apostle, he has also created several stakes that are within the Bentonville temple district.

Related Stories

For Elder Bednar and his wife, Sister Susan Bednar, any trip to Bentonville is truly a homecoming. They and their family lived there for almost 20 years during the 1980s and 1990s while Elder Bednar taught as a professor of business management at the University of Arkansas prior to his being called as president of Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho).

An additional 1,500 miles away to the northwest and two hours after the start of the first session in Bentonville and four after the start in Brasília, Elder Quentin L. Cook will preside over the dedication of the Moses Lake Washington Temple, with its sessions beginning at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Elder David L. Stapleton, an Area Seventy, and his wife, Barb, stand next to a rendering of the Moses Lake Washington Temple at the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, October 10, 2020.

While Elder Cook hasn’t been to the Moses Lake temple or grounds, he and his wife, Sister Mary Cook, will be in familiar territory. As a General Authority Seventy, he served as president of the Church’s North America Northwest Area in the early 2000s (now part of the North America West Area), with assignments including presiding at the Moses Lake Washington Stake conference in June 2002 and joining President Gordon B. Hinckley for the November 2001 dedication of the Columbia River Washington Temple in Richland, Washington, some 60 miles south of Moses Lake.

Related Stories

Same-day dedications

In reality, the Church’s first two-dedication day wasn’t planned as such.

In November 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley was scheduled to dedicate temples on back-to-back days — the Halifax Nova Scotia Temple on Saturday, Nov. 13, and the Regina Saskatchewan Temple on Sunday, Nov. 14.

However, mechanical issues with the airplane President Hinckley was to use resulted in a day’s delay. The decision was made to have the Church President dedicate the Halifax temple a day later and President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, to preside at the Regina dedication on its scheduled date. The result: the Halifax and Regina temple dedications both occurred on Sunday, Nov. 14, 1999.

President Gordon B. Hinckley waves outside the Halifax Nova Scotia Temple on Nov. 14, 1999.

The next year, as the Church continued its push to meet President Hinckley’s announced goal to have 100 dedicated temples by the end of the century, same-day dedications occurred three times in 2000.

On Sunday, April 23, 2000, President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated the Memphis Tennessee Temple while President Thomas S. Monson, then First Presidency first counselor, dedicated the Reno Nevada Temple. And President Hinckley would dedicate the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple a week later.
On Sunday, May 21, 2000, President Faust dedicated the Nashville Tennessee Temple while President Monson dedicated the Villahermosa Mexico Temple — with the latter having dedicated the Tampico Mexico Temple the day before.
And on June 4, 2000, President Hinckley dedicated the Montreal Quebec Temple as President Faust dedicated the San José Costa Rica Temple. President Hinckley then left for the Pacific Rim and South Pacific to dedicate four additional temples over the next two weeks — the Fukuoka Japan, Adelaide Australia, Melbourne Australia and Suva Fiji temples.

More recently and in the near future

More than two decades later, the Church once again had two new houses of the Lord dedicated on the same day, Nov. 20, 2022 — the Belém Brazil Temple and the Quito Ecuador Temple, by Elder Dale G. Renlund and Elder Cook, respectively, both of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

That was 10 months ago.

And after Sunday, Sept. 17, Latter-day Saints won’t have to wait long for the next time multiple temples are dedicated. It will happen just three weeks later — with the Oct. 8 dedications of the McAllen Texas Temple by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Feather River California Temple, in Yuba City, California, by Elder Ulisses Soares, both of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Four more temples are scheduled to be dedicated between mid-October and mid-January 2024 — all on separate days.

The Church has 48 additional temples in various stages of construction, with two more to start construction following scheduled groundbreaking services next month.

Related Stories

NOTE: An earlier version included a wrong year for the Nov. 14, 2022, dedications of the Belém Brazil and Quito Ecuador temples.