LDS church announces new name for 2nd Washington County temple

Rendering of the Red Cliffs Utah Temple | Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The second Latter-day Saint temple in Washington County will officially be known as the Red Cliffs Utah Temple, according to a Tweet from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Tuesday morning.

A site plan for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple | Image courtesy of the city of St. George, St. George News |Click to enlarge

According to the church’s news site, the new name was approved by the church’s First Presidency last month.

Prior to the name change, the incoming temple was called the Washington County Temple. Located at the corner of 3000 East and 1580 South in St. George, the new temple will be around 90,000 square feet in size. The overall temple site will cover over 14 acres.

The incoming temple was announced during the LDS church’s October 2018 general conference, with the exact location not being disclosed until November 2019. Work on the new temple grounds began in April.

Construction at the temple site up to this point has mainly involved raising the grade of the property.

Thus far, no announcement has been made regarding a date for an official groundbreaking for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple.

The area’s first temple closed in November 2019 for renovation and upgrades and is expected to reopen in 2022.

Area residents previously served by the St. George Utah Temple were required to travel to one of the LDS temples in Las Vegas or Cedar City after it closed. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the church suspended temple services worldwide, though they have since partially reopened select temples in a limited capacity.

Latter-day Saints consider temples to be the “house of the Lord,” the most sacred places on Earth. Temples differ from the meeting houses or chapels where all are welcome to attend Sunday worship services. In the temple, according to LDS church descriptions, the teachings of Jesus Christ are believed to be reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other ceremonies that unite families for eternity.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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