Rendering of the Orem Utah temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
OREM, Utah — An invite-only groundbreaking for the new Orem temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will happen in September, the church announced on Wednesday.
Elder Craig C. Christensen, the Utah Area President for the church, will preside at the event scheduled for September 5, 2020.
The temple was one of two Utah temples announced by President Russell M. Nelson in October of last year. The planned three-story, 70,000 square foot building will sit on a 16-acre site on South Geneva Road, just west of Interstate 15 and south of University Parkway.
When the site for the new Orem temple was announced in December, Mayor Richard Brunst said with the exponential growth Orem and the surrounding communities are seeing, a temple is a welcome addition.
“Within the city of Orem, we have a large population of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about 70%, so this will be a great thing for our residents,” Brunst said.
Construction is expected to take around three years.
Utah currently has 17 operating temples out of 24 that have been announced, are under construction or under renovation.
In addition to Orem, temples have been announced in Syracuse, Taylorsville, Tooele and Washington County. Two temples, one in Layton and another in Saratoga Springs, are currently under construction. According to statistics from the Church of Jesus Christ, there are 2.1 million Latter-day Saints in Utah.
The church says its members consider temples to be the “house of the Lord.” These buildings differ from regular meetinghouses used for Sabbath worship and weekly activities.