The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will rededicate the Manti Utah Temple on Sunday, April 21.
The rededication will be done in just one late-afternoon session at 5 p.m., with no adjustments to regular Sunday worship services for the wards and branches in the temple district.
The First Presidency previously announced the April 21 dedication date — along with the temple’s March 11 media day the public open house running from March 14 through April 5 — nearly four months ago, on Nov. 20, 2023. The original announcement noted that additional information regarding the rededication — including the times of sessions and who will be presiding — would be announced at a future date.
On Feb. 12, 2024, the First Presidency announced the late-afternoon, single-session rededication. An assigned presiding Church leader was still not identified at that time.
The announcement of Elder Rasband’s rededication assignment was first published Tuesday, April 9, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The Manti temple rededication session will be broadcast to all units within the Manti temple district, with the units expected to hold their standard two-hour Church meetings at their regular times that day.
The temple recently completed its public open house, with the final day being Friday, April 5.
The Manti temple’s history and renovation
During April 2019 general conference, Church President Russell M. Nelson announced the renovation of several pioneer-era temples — including the 74,792-square-foot Manti temple, which required mechanical upgrades and technology to allow the ordinances and covenants to be administered in multiple languages.
On May 1, 2021, President Nelson announced plans to preserve “the pioneer craftsmanship, artwork and character” of the Manti temple — as well as plans to construct a second temple in Utah’s Sanpete Valley, in the city of Ephraim. A closure date of Oct. 1, 2021, was set to start the multiyear renovations.
On June 25, 1875, Church leaders announced plans to first construct the Manti temple. Church President Brigham Young broke ground April 25, 1877, and President Wilford Woodruff, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later the Church’s fourth President, dedicated the temple on May 21, 1888. “Show favor unto all who have helped to forward this work by good wishes, good words or good deeds,” he prayed.
Almost a century later, in June 1985, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a counselor in the First Presidency, rededicated the temple following recent renovations. Asking the Lord to sanctify the temple, he prayed that “all who will enter it through the years to come, may feel the presence of Thy Spirit and recognize that they are in holy precincts.”
The Manti temple was the Church of Jesus Christ’s fifth constructed in the latter days and is third oldest still in operation. The Church assumed stewardship of the Kirtland Temple earlier this year from Community of Christ, and the original Nauvoo Temple was left behind by the Saints who were forced to migrate to the Salt Lake Valley; it was later destroyed by fire and a tornado.
Temples in Utah were later built and dedicated — in order — in St. George, Logan, Manti and Salt Lake before the end of the 19th century.
Following President Nelson’s April 2019 announcement, the St. George Utah Temple was the first to close and begin renovations, in November 2019, as well as the first to be rededicated, on Dec. 10, 2023.
The Salt Lake Temple closed in December 2019 for extensive renovations and seismic upgrading. The latest projection for completion is for 2026.
