The rededication date for the San Diego California Temple has been announced by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The dedication date for the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple has also been announced, and corresponding open houses are planned for both temples.
The House of the Lord in San Diego will be rededicated at 10 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, with a rebroadcast at 2 p.m., but the presiding authority has not been announced.
This follows an open house from June 18th to July 11th, excluding Sundays. A media day is scheduled for June 15, and invited guests will tour the sacred structure June 16-17.
The Phnom Penh Temple, Cambodia’s first House of the Lord, will be dedicated on Sunday, August 30th by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The ceremony will be broadcast to all units within the temple area at 10 a.m. and rebroadcast at 2 p.m.
Early in the month, a short open house will be held from Saturday, August 15th to Saturday, August 22nd, excluding Sundays. Media Day will be held on August 12th, with invited guests touring on August 13th and 14th.
These dates were published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org on Monday, March 2nd.
See below for the history of these temples and churches in California and Cambodia.
About the San Diego Temple
The House of the Lord in San Diego was the third temple in California and the Church’s 45th temple still in operation.
On April 7, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then Second Counselor in the First Presidency, announced the temple at the beginning of the April 1984 general conference.
President Ezra Taft Benson, as President of the Church, presided over the temple’s groundbreaking ceremony on February 27, 1988. His second counselor, President Thomas S. Monson, dedicated the site.
In his address to the congregation, President Benson said the temple “serves as a lasting testimony that the power of God can keep the forces of evil in our midst.”
After completion, an open house was held from February 20, 1993 to April 3, 1993. During this period, approximately 720,000 people visited the open house, of which 650,000 people were expected to visit.
The San Diego California Temple was dedicated in 23 sessions from April 25 to April 30, 1993. President Hinckley, then First Counselor in the First Presidency, presided over 13 sessions, and President Monson presided over the remaining 10 sessions.
President Hinckley prayed in his dedicatory prayer: “May it be of unparalleled beauty, emitting a spiritual glow that speaks of peace and goodness to the millions of people who see it as they move quickly along the adjacent highways.”
The San Diego Temple continued to perform temple ordinances for 30 years before closing on July 31, 2023 for major renovations.
At the time of its closure, the temple was 169 feet tall and 72,000 square feet in size, with two central minarets surrounded by four smaller minarets. Highlighted by Interstate 5 in Southern California, the temple sits on 7.2 acres near the suburbs of La Jolla, north of San Diego.
About Phnom Penh Temple
The Phnom Penh Temple, built in the capital of Cambodia, was the first house of the Lord in the country.
Announced on October 7, 2018, it was one of 12 temple locations announced by then-Church President Russell M. Nelson at the October 2018 general conference. This was President Nelson’s second general conference as a prophet.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 18, 2021, and was presided over by Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission President Viasna Kuonno Nairn. Participants were limited to comply with local COVID-19 social guidelines, but the event was broadcast across Cambodia and neighboring countries.
“Today marks the inauguration of the Holy Temple of God, which symbolizes the faithfulness, love and joy of the saints of Cambodia,” President Nairn said. “We know that when we come to the temple, we feel closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. We would be very happy if we could come to the temple as often as possible.”
Phnom Penh Temple was planned as a one-story building of approximately 10,000 square feet. The facility is being built on a 3.16-acre site on Russian Federation Road, between the Cambodian University of Technology and the Institute of Foreign Languages, near the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Ancillary buildings were also planned on the site.
Churches in California and Cambodia
There are eight dedicated Lord’s homes in California, with two under construction and two in the planning stages.
In addition to the San Diego Temple, which is undergoing renovation, seven other temples have been dedicated: Los Angeles Temple (dedicated in 1956), Oakland Temple (1964), Fresno Temple (2000), Redlands Temple (2003), Newport Beach Temple (2005), Sacramento Temple (2006), and Feather River Temple (2023).
The Yorba Linda California Temple is scheduled to be dedicated on June 7, 2026, and the Modesto California Temple has been under construction since October 2023.
Temples are planned for Bakersfield and the San Jose suburb of Sunnyvale, both of which were announced in April 2023.
Latter-day Saints first arrived in California, then Yerba Buena, on July 31, 1846. The company, with approximately 230 employees, tripled the population of Yerba Buena and helped create the prosperous city of San Francisco.
Today, nearly 730,000 Latter-day Saints live in California and meet in more than 1,000 wards and branches.
On the other side of the world, the Cambodian government formally recognized the Church of Jesus Christ in early 1994. Later, in September 1994, the Phnom Penh branch was organized.
On May 25, 2014, the first two stakes in Cambodia were established: the Phnom Penh Cambodia North Stake and the Phnom Penh South Stake. This is the second time in Church history that the first two stakes were established on the same day.
More than 17,000 Latter-day Saints live in Cambodia, meeting in 31 wards and branches.
