The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released sites for two new houses of the Lord — the Birmingham England Temple and the Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple.
Both were temples announced by President Russell M. Nelson in general conference settings — the Birmingham temple in April 2022 and the Cagayan de Oro temple in 2018.
The sites were first published Monday, Dec. 18, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Birmingham England Temple
Projected as a single-story edifice of approximately 10,800 square feet, the Birmingham England Temple will be built on a 2.7-acre site at 185-187 Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England, with patron housing and arrival facilities planned at the location. Currently, a meetinghouse sits at 185 Penns Lane, with the England Birmingham Mission office at 187 Penns Lane.
President Nelson announced a temple for Birmingham on April 2, 2022, one of 17 new locations he identified at the closing session of April 2022 general conference.
The United Kingdom is home to nearly 187,000 Latter-day Saints comprising more than 315 congregations. The Birmingham will be the third house of the Lord in the European nation, joining the London England Temple (dedicated in 1958) and the Preston England Temple (dedicated in 1998).
Two latter-day apostles — Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde — arrived in Liverpool, England and began preaching the restored gospel in Preston, England, about 95 miles (115 kilometers) northwest of Birmingham. During the 1800s, more than 52,000 converts emigrated from Britain to the United States to join the Church’s main body of membership; by 1870, nearly half of the population in the present-day state of Utah consisted of British immigrants.
Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple
The Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple is planned as a two-story building of approximately 18,449 square feet, to be built on a 4.9-acre site at Lot 2163-c and Lot 2163-d Rosario Limketkai Avenue, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis in the Philippines.
Also projected for the property — located near the intersection of Rosario Limketkai and Rosario Cres avenues — is an ancillary building that will include an arrival center, patron housing and a distribution center.
A temple for Cagayan de Oro — in the region of Northern Mindanao on the island of Mindanao — was one of seven locations for new houses of the Lord that President Nelson announced on April 1, 2018, the first general conference he presided over after becoming President of the Church.
Two temples are operating — the Manila Philippines Temple, dedicated in 1984, and the Cebu City Philippines Temple, dedicated in 2010 — with the Urdaneta Philippines Temple scheduled for dedication on April 28, 2024, by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency.
Three other houses of the Lord are under construction in the southeastern Asia island nation — the Alabang Philippines, the Bacolod Philippines and the Davao Philippines temples. Six more have been announced — for Iloilo, Laoag, Naga, Santiago, Tacloban City and Tuguegarao City — giving the Philippines 13 total temples that are dedicated, under construction or in planning.
More than 850,000 Church members in approximately 1,275 congregations live in the Philippines. The gospel was first preached there in 1961, where Church growth has been among the fastest in the world.
