On April 7, 2024, President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a temple will be built in Victoria, British Columbia. The Victoria British Columbia Temple will be Canada’s 11th temple and the second in British Columbia. It is one of 15 new houses of the Lord announced by President Nelson during the final session of the April 2024 general conference.
President Nelson said temples are “the gateway to the greatest blessings God has for each of us. … Time in the temple will help you to ‘think celestial’ and to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become and the kind of life you can have forever.”
Christine Hitchmough, Temple and Family History consultant in the Victoria Second Ward, has been travelling with her husband monthly via ferry to worship in the Vancouver British Columbia Temple. When she heard the announcement of the new temple for Victoria, she said, “Overjoyed, I can hardly wait to walk through the doors of the house of the Lord in Victoria!”
Temples established by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are considered places where members can leave the preoccupations of the world behind and feel holiness and peace. Different from Sunday meetinghouses or chapels, temples provide a sacred space where Church members make formal promises and commitments to God. They are also the place where the highest sacraments of the faith occur — the marriage of couples and the “sealing” of families for eternity.
John Borrows, chair of the Victoria Multifaith Society and Latter-day Saint, said, “Temples are places of peace and tranquility. The Victoria British Columbia Temple’s serenity and beauty will enhance Victoria’s rich and varied heritage of faith and worship.”
Elder M. Travis Wolsey, Area Seventy for the Church in British Columbia, said, “The glorious announcement of the Victoria British Columbia Temple is a witness that God loves His children and hears their prayers. So many consecrated members from Vancouver Island have shown devotion and sacrifice. They have been praying for this beautiful blessing for years.”
Other operating temples in Canada are those in Calgary Alberta, Cardston Alberta, Edmonton Alberta, Halifax Nova Scotia, Montreal Quebec, Regina Saskatchewan, Toronto Ontario, Winnipeg Manitoba and Vancouver British Columbia. A temple was announced in April 2023 for Lethbridge, Alberta.
Additional Resource
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