Community of Christ members tour the Toronto LDS temple

'Toronto_temple3.jpg' by Lone Primate, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Last week, leaders and members of Community of Christ had the unique opportunity to visit the Toronto Ontario Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Although LDS temples are normally restricted to members of that church who are in good standing, they are open for tours prior to their dedication, and after periods of renovation before being rededicated.

Rulon Stacey, president of the LDS Toronto Mission, invited several Community of Christ leaders and members to special tours of the temple held before a general open house. Those attending included leaders and members of the Woodfield, Brydges Street, Grand Valley, and Toronto congregations. 

As communications officer for Community of Christ in Canada, Leandro Palacios was invited to a tour led by Kim Woodbury of the LDS Church Communications Department. Canada East Mission Centre Historian John Hamer participated in the tour with LDS Historian Helen Warner.

The temple was first dedicated in 1990, but has recently undergone a significant renovation. With 5,162 square meters of floor space, it is relatively large for an LDS temple built in the 1990s. The temple includes some decorative nods to its location, including carpeting decorated with trillium flowers (the symbol of Ontario).  Common to all LDS temples, the lower level includes a baptismal font that rests on the backs of twelve oxen, representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel — a nod to the basin that stood in front of Solomon’s temple as described in 1 Kings 7:23–26. In LDS practice, the basin is used for “ancestral baptism,” that is baptisms by proxy for persons who died without having been baptized into the LDS Church.  

The temple contains four “instruction rooms,” which include video projectors where members participate in the LDS endowment ordinance, which includes a video presentation.  The instruction rooms are separated by curtains or “veils” opening into the “Celestial Room,” which is symbolically meant to represent heaven.  The guides indicated that no rituals are held in the Celestial Room, but that the place is set aside for quiet reflection. The temple includes six “sealing rooms,” where LDS couples are married according to their tradition, which includes a belief that the couple and their children are “sealed together for time and all eternity.”  

The hosts were very open and generous in sharing this space that is sacred to their faith with their Restoration cousins in Community of Christ.  Public tours are available Mondays through Saturdays from now until March 8 for anyone interested in a rare look inside an LDS temple.

Find out more about this event at churchofjesuschrist.org.

John Hamer, Leandro Palacios, Linda Stacey, and Rulon Stacey outside the Toronto Ontario Temple. Image courtesy of Rulon Stacey