As LDS Church prepares to open more temples, leaders adjust investiture ceremony

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday that 12 of its temples, including four in the US, will resume performing temple “endowments” or ritual teachings on the origin and purpose of mortality. .

“The sacred teachings, promises, and ceremonies of the temple are of ancient origin, and draw God’s children to him as they make more covenants and learn more about his plan, including the role of the Savior Jesus Christ,” wrote the president of the church, Russell M. Nelson and his two counselors. “Through inspiration, the methods of instruction in the temple experience have changed many times, including in recent history, to help members better understand and live what they learn in the temple.”

“With concern for everyone” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic “and a desire to enhance the temple learning experience,” the leaders wrote, “recent changes have been authorized to the temple endowment ceremony.”

The endowment ceremonies include “making sacred covenants or promises to God,” they said, and they resemble other covenants such as “prayer, immersion of an individual in baptism, or holding hands during a marriage ceremony.”

Similar “symbolic and simple actions accompany the completion of temple covenants,” wrote the senior officials.

In other words, there are some physical elements in the rituals.

The First Presidency urged members and friends not to speculate or “participate in a public discussion” about what these changes might entail.

“We invite church members to continue waiting for the day when they can return,” the letter said, “and to fully participate in the work of the sacred temple with prayer and thanks.”

The temple endowment is considered one of the most sacred rites of faith based in Utah, making it especially difficult to send full-time missionaries to your service without being “gifted.”

The revisions to the temple ceremony are unprecedented.

Many women had complained about the “endowment,” which includes a re-enactment of Genesis, noting that Eve is speechless during her stay with Adam after the couple’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Now that the seminal female figure has a full monologue, a temple visitor said shortly after the change. “She has more lines than Satan.”

Temples moving to Phase 2 on July 27 include two in Germany, one in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and South Korea, as well as Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Ohio.

As of this week, 122 of the Temples of Faith worldwide, including the 15 operating temples in Utah, have been reopened under the Phase 1 plan, according to a press release, and three others are ready to enter. online next week.

None of the Hive State Latter-day temples have advanced to Phase 2. The state is currently enduring an alarming spike in coronavirus cases.

Historic pioneer-era temples in Salt Lake City and St. George are closed while undergoing extensive renovations. The church also plans to build seven more temples in Utah, bringing the state’s total to 24.