The First Presidency announced June 12 that the open house and rededication for the Fiji Suva Temple will take place in early 2016.
Members in the temple district are looking forward to the dedication on Feb. 21, especially since only a few were permitted to attend the original dedication.
President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the temple on June 18, 2000, in one session.
Elder Quentin L. Cook, now of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was then president of the Church's Pacific Islands Area. In an April 2013 general conference address, Elder Cook spoke of the temple's dedication.
"There had been political upheaval resulting in rebels burning and looting downtown Suva, occupying the houses of Parliament and holding legislators hostage," Elder Cook said. "The country was under martial law. The Fiji military gave the Church limited permission to assemble people for the open house and a very small group for the dedication. The members as a whole were uninvited due to concerns for their safety. It was the only temple dedication since the original Nauvoo Temple that was held under very difficult circumstances."
The Suva Fiji Temple was one of the first temples built during the Church’s plan to locate temples closer to its members. The temple serves Latter-day Saints in Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
The free public open house starts on Monday, January 25, and will go through Saturday, February 6, 2016. It will run every day except for Sunday, January 31.
The temple will be rededicated in three sessions on Sunday, February 21, with the cultural celebration taking place on Saturday, February 20.
The sessions to rededicate the temple will be held at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. and will be broadcast to meetinghouses in the Suva Fiji Temple district. The three-hour block of meetings will be cancelled for that Sunday to allow members to participate in the rededication services.