After the cornerstone ceremony, President Hinckley presided at the dedicatory services on the top floor of the building.

During the service, Elder Hales recalled his childhood in Manhattan, praising the "Eastern pioneers" who had laid the physical and spiritual foundation for the temple. He referred to them during Saturday night's jubilee celebration at Radio City Music Hall, lauding early Latter-day Saints who had sailed from New York City to California on the ship "Brooklyn" a year before Brigham Young led the main body of Latter-day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Like those early pioneers, many who have lived in New York for decades have prepared the way for those who will follow, he said.

Longtime resident Brent Belnap, president of the Manhattan LDS Stake who chaired the temple committee for two years, brushed aside tears of joy following the service. In a voice choked with emotion, he said Sunday was "the greatest day ever for the city of New York . . . I can't think of anywhere that needs a place of peace and of refuge and of repentance more than New York City. This temple is a blessing."

Emotions ran high among New York church members, some of whom returned to the city for the dedication. Norman Rothman, a former New York resident who now lives in Salt Lake City, came back to the city of his birth, where he was among the first Jewish converts to the LDS Church 40 years ago.

He has since written a book to the Jewish people about his faith. "It's just wonderful," he said, standing outside the temple. "Who would ever have thought?"

Josh Leukhardt of Queens spent all day Saturday helping orchestrate the jubilee celebration, and was outside the temple early Sunday ushering visitors through. He said the dedication is a fitting cap to months of work by many people to see a sacred space devoted to God. "It's the best."

Before Sunday, "we had to travel five hours to the temple, so I haven't been in almost two years," said Rebecca Gilmore, a longtime member and actress who met her husband on Broadway before he joined the LDS Church. "No one has a car here, and it's $100 to get a sitter for the kids for a day at the temple" in Boston. Now it's within a subway ride for nearly everyone in the temple district, she said.

Understatement is one of the best parts about having the temple in Manhattan, she said, noting it's difficult to impress New Yorkers who are used to "seeing spectacular things every day." Yet in her faith, the most important things in life are found inside what Latter-day Saints consider to be "God's house."