When Janae Baird wanted to go to the temple, there was a laundry list of arrangements she had to make as a mother of five young children. 
Baird’s pilgrimage from Fort Worth to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Dallas temple, the only one in the metroplex, involved a one-hour commute to the location, the two hours she would spend inside and the hour it would take her to get back home. 

Making the four-hour trip would only be possible after successfully scheduling an appointment to visit the temple, which can be a challenge in itself considering the membership growth the denomination has seen in Baird’s three decades of living in the metroplex, she said. 

While Baird’s children are grown up now, the thought of having a sacred place to practice her faith closer to home would be “such a blessing in my life,” she said. 

For the past two years, that thought has come closer to becoming a reality. 

In October 2023, members of the church broke ground in Burleson on the second temple to be built in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Fort Worth Texas Temple will be about 30,000 square feet with an estimated completion date in mid-2026.

“Having the temple in Dallas is wonderful,” Baird said. “But having the temple in Fort Worth will provide an opportunity for people to attend more frequently and to have it be a more peaceful and calm experience overall.”

About the Fort Worth Texas Temple

Temples within the denomination, also called “house of the Lord,” are considered places of holiness and peace separate from the preoccupations of the world. 

Temples are not placed for regular Sunday worship but rather serve as the only place where ceremonies such as baptism and eternal marriage can be performed on behalf of those who have died — a practice that Latter-day Saints believe was followed in the New Testament but later lost, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are also a place where the highest sacraments of the faith take place, including marriages and the “sealing” of families for eternity. 

The interior of Latter-day Saints temples consist of a number of rooms designed to accommodate certain functions such as marriages, baptisms and religious instructional sessions. 

Inside the temples, church members change into simple, modest white clothing before taking part in temple ceremonies. The white clothing symbolizes purity and equality before God, according to the church. 

A meetinghouse, or chapel, is a building where members gather for Sunday worship services, weekly activities or community events. A new meetinghouse is also being built in addition to the construction of the Fort Worth Texas Temple.

Anyone, regardless of religion, may enter a Latter-day Saints meetinghouse and attend services. 

However, because of the sacredness of temples as “houses of the Lord,” only members of the church who are in good standing are allowed to enter, according to the church. 

Membership growth

The new temple comes as membership growth in Texas has been rapid in recent decades, growing from 132,000 Latter-day Saints in 1985 to just over 210,000 in 2000, according to the church. Today, Texas is home to more than 378,000 members in nearly 750 congregations.

North Texas is home to about 100,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Temple Groundbreaking Committee. Fort Worth has about 33,000 members and 30 meetinghouses, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The groundbreaking for a new temple symbolized a new beginning “and an invitation for all to come and partake of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Elder Jose L. Alonso, member of the General Authority Seventies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said during the October 2023 groundbreaking. 

“Those who will build this beautiful temple of stone and mortar, and we as a community, can also build a kind of temple full of unity, love and understanding in our hearts,” Alonso said. 

Construction milestones

Stone cladding panels are being fastened to the retaining walls that surround the temple grounds, according to a June 22 update posted to the project’s website. The new meetinghouse’s parking lot is also being paved, sod has been laid, and soft landscaping is being established.

A gold domed cupola was set in place on the Fort Worth Texas Temple in late May, with its finial soon to follow. The construction milestone brings the temple to its full height. 

After the temple is built, it will be open to the public for tours — typically scheduled for a period of two weeks or more — before being dedicated for ordinance work.

It is Baird’s hope, she says, that by visiting the temple people will understand “what makes it feel like a special place” and continue to enjoy the outdoor temple grounds after its dedication. 

“The exterior of the temple, we really hope, can be a place where as the community passes by to enjoy the grounds that they can feel that calm and that peace,” Baird said. “And that the temple becomes a beloved place for them as well.”

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org. 

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