A Washington, D.C. Temple in 1913?

                                                      The Current Washington, D.C. Temple.

"Mormon Temple at National Capital" was a Dec. 12, 1913 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner newspaper.

Even back then, Church members were very serious about trying to have an LDS Temple constructed there.
This article reported despite having just 150 Church members in the area at the time, this small group was organizing to propose that a temple be built in the nation's capital.
Of course, no temple was built then and it would be another 61 years in 1974 before such a sacred building would open near Washington, D.C.
The article even quoted U.S. Senator Reed Smoot (Utah) as being in favor of this project in 1913, though "the plan to build has not taken tangible form."
-WHEN THE LDS CHURCH FIRST ESPOUSED VIDEO PRODUCTIONS: The Ogden Standard-Examiner of Aug. 30, 1913 reported that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted the use of motion pictures very soon after their invention.
The Church in 1913 reported wanting to use motion pictures in Sunday School classes in particular, as a way to instill the details of Christ's life into them minds of its members.
The story noted that some Sunday School officials did not initially  favor the use of motion pictures, though.
  
NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

The 3 Most Unique Temples of All ...

WHAT are the three most uniqueTemples to be found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
They are the Salt Lake Temple, the Jordan River Temple and the Ogden Temple

Why?

1. The Salt Lake Temple is the flagship temple in the church. 
It required the longest time to be built (40 years) and includes far more symbolism on its exterior than any other temple.

                  The Richard Flygare wedding in the Jordan River Temple.

2. The Jordan River Temple is the ONLY church temple ever built that didn't use any church funds for its construction.
Besides land being donated for its construction to the church (representing the only exception since the 1960s where the church accepted donated land with conditions attached -- that a temple would be build there) -- area members donated $15 million (a price estimated before any plans were drawn up).
The temple actually cost less than that to build (probably $9-10 million)  and so the unused money funded the temple's complete operating costs for several years.
Also, the Jordan River Temple has six endowment ordinance rooms that can seat 125 church members -- the highest capacity endowment temple in the church.

                     A painting of the original Ogden Temple by Keith Wilcox.


3. The Ogden Temple was the first temple in the church to feature six ordinance rooms.
In its first month of operation in 1971, the temple did more endowment work than all other Utah temples combined.
It was also the first temple in the U.S. to feature a film to present the endowment, instead of having to move, room-to-room.
In addition, this is the only temple to be torn down and rebuilt, with just the cornerstone left of the original structure.

                           The "new" Ogden Temple from the west side.

                     The S.E. corner of the rebuilt Ogden Temple.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

A Temple Ship on the Seven Seas?

This is a 1965 view of New York City and an ocean liner, similar to what the Church was considering purchasing in the late 1960s, for use as a traveling temple.

                                                                                    -Photograph is from Wikipedia Commons. 

                                                

By Lynn Arave

DURING a visit for official research with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the second floor of the Church History Building, one of the church employees assisting me stumbled across a rare find --- something that I had never heard of before ...
The Church at one time considered creating a temple on a large ship.
It could sail to countries where there was no temple and offer the blessings of the sacred structure to church members who could reach the coastline ports.
The special ship would feature a celestial room in its center, where normally the large dining room on a cruise ship is. With lodging, water, dining facilities, etc., this idea had merit, as self-contained traveling temple, complete with hotel rooms for temple patrons.
This was a proposal made in the late 1960s.
It never happened, but it was studied. In fact, a suitable ship was available for purchase for $2 million and another $2 million could have made it temple worthy.
Now days, temples are scattered all over the world. So, a sailing temple would likely not be needed today.
A temple on the seven seas ... who knew?
-What doomed this unique idea?
None other than boundary issues.
According to Church policy, temples have to be located inside a stake's boundaries.
Since the temple was roving and could not be tied to any specific stake of the Church, the project was considered not doctrinally correct.
Could they not have made the sailing ship an exception to the stake boundary policy? Yes, but again that didn't happen either.
President Joseph Fielding Smith was said to have studied the idea for a temple ship, but could find no precedent where it could be exempt from the policy of a temple having to be inside a stake. So, he said no to the idea in 1970 and that was it.
So, the "USS Celestial" never set sail.
-For me, there was already a precedent set -- that the Israelites had a roving temple for many decades in the past. They were technically a stake on wheels and that worked way back then.

Sources: Church Archives and Fred Baker, former head of Church Physical Facilities.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

-The Above photograph is from Wikipedia Commons, of a typical ocean liner ship in the mid-1960s, with New York City in the background.