Manhattan Temple dedicated

NEW YORK — For Latter-day Saints, this city of ultimate contrasts added another Sunday when their prophet dedicated the Manhattan Temple as a "place of great refuge" just off Broadway, some 23 blocks north of Times Square, with its 24/7 multistory neon considered by many here the "crossroads of the world."

"We've brought Zion to Babylon," President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told several hundred church members. "Zion" is a biblical term often used by LDS leaders to refer to "the pure in heart."

Church members packed the temple and its interior meetinghouse opposite Lincoln Center for the first dedicatory session. Additional thousands gathered for each of the four members-only dedicatory services, broadcast live to 16 meetinghouses in 10 languages.

Following a monthlong public open house, only faithful Latter-day Saints will now be admitted to the temple, which President Hinckley said stands in sharp contrast to much of what surrounds it.

In the dedicatory prayer, he asked God to "protect it from any act of evil hands" and from the forces of nature, so it can welcome those who seek "the spirit of the Lord."

A 9 a.m. cornerstone ceremony was held in a small entryway near the elevator on the main floor of the six-story building, just off the Columbus Street entrance. A small choir filled the room with a rendition of the hymn, "Sweet Is the Work," as President Hinckley, several of his children, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve and other LDS dignitaries stepped off the elevator. "Only in Manhattan could eight voices produce that kind of music," he said, smiling.

As he has done scores of times during his service to the church as a general authority and now as its top leader, President Hinckley took a trowel and placed a bit of mortar in the cornerstone of the new temple. After inviting several church leaders to place some mortar, he asked 6-year-old Sarah Hodson and 7-year-old Christopher Belnap to do so as well.

The cornerstone contains a time capsule filled with memorabilia significant to New York church members, including a commemorative white satin handkerchief with gold detailing patterned after one LDS Church founder Joseph Smith commissioned for the dedication of the faith's first temple in Kirtland, Ohio. Also included was a copy of the New York Times and a commemorative piece of crystal, along with a set of LDS scriptures, sheet music and other memorabilia.

The 20,630-square-foot temple now fills the first, second, fifth and six floors of the building, with the third and fourth floors holding a meetinghouse and LDS administrative offices.