COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Church leaders and local members gathered here Saturday to break ground on the Colorado Springs Colorado Temple, a new house of worship for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that will become the fourth such structure in the state.
Elder Karl D. Hirst of the Church’s United States Central Area Presidency presided over the September 12 ceremony, which included remarks from local leaders and a dedicatory prayer offered over the future temple site.
“The temple is a place of spiritual guidance, peace, hope and revelation,” Elder Hirst told those assembled. “For us, temples are literally the house of the Lord. The Lord visits His temples, and they are the most precious and sacred of all our places of worship.”
In his prayer dedicating the site, Elder Hirst asked for blessings on those who would encounter the property during construction. “Please bless us as we wait upon Thee here, that we will receive all that we need from Thy hand and that the sacredness of this site will be experienced more broadly by those who work or pass by here,” he prayed.
Elder Hirst was joined at the ceremony by his wife, Claire, who participated alongside him in the groundbreaking.
Several local members offered testimonies during the program describing what temple worship means to them. Sandy Gardner, a member of the Colorado Springs North Stake who has served as an ordinance worker at the Denver Colorado Temple for nearly 18 years, described temples as bridging the gap between mortal life and the eternities.
“Temples are the bridge between mortality and immortality, a place where we receive comfort, peace, vision, hope and promise,” she said.
Her husband, Rich, echoed that sentiment. “We are promised that honoring temple covenants binds us to the Savior, Jesus Christ, and we can become like Him,” he said. “What a magnificent prospect.”
Once completed, the Colorado Springs temple will join existing Latter-day Saint temples in Denver, Fort Collins and Grand Junction, bringing the state’s total to four.
Temples occupy a distinct place in Latter-day Saint religious life, separate from the meetinghouses, or chapels, where members and the public gather for Sunday worship and other weekly activities. Temples, by contrast, are reserved for faithful members to participate in sacred ordinances, including marriages intended to unite families beyond death and proxy baptisms performed on behalf of deceased ancestors.
No completion date was announced at Saturday’s ceremony.
