LDS Church sets dates for Calgary Temple open house, dedication

The 140th temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will commence operations next month when the new Calgary Alberta Temple is dedicated.

Prior to its dedication on Sunday, Oct. 28, the temple will be open for public tours from Sept. 29 through Oct. 20 (excluding Sundays and Saturday, Oct. 6). Free reservations for the open house can be made online through www.calgarymormontemple.org or by calling 1-855-537-2000.

There will also be a cultural celebration of the new temple on Saturday, Oct. 27, featuring LDS young people in the temple district. The celebration will be held in the Stampede Corral.

The Calgary Temple, the third Mormon temple in Alberta and Canada’s eighth, is located in the northwest part of Calgary, near the Olympic Park from the 1988 Winter Olympics. It will serve some 25,000 Latter-day Saints in the Calgary area, including surrounding communities from Banff in the west to Drumheller in the east.

The three-story, 33,000-square-foot building has a gray granite exterior and a gold-and-green color scheme in the interior. In order to reflect the importance of agriculture in Alberta, a wheat motif is seen in stained-glass windows, railings, doorknobs and furniture.

Once the temple is dedicated, public tours will no longer be conducted. The temple will then be open only to practicing Latter-day Saints holding a recommendation from their local ecclesiastical leaders for the purpose of performing sacred sacraments of the faith, including marriage (referred to by Mormons as “sealing”) and proxy baptism for deceased ancestors.