Coming less than four months after the dedication of New Zealand’s second temple, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally began construction of the Wellington New Zealand Temple with a groundbreaking ceremony held Saturday, Aug. 2.
The ceremony — presided by Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the church’s Pacific Area Presidency — was attended by more than 500 Latter-day Saints, as well as local government, community and faith leaders. Additional church and community members joined virtually through an online broadcast of the event.
“What is the most important thing? It’s the people, it’s the people, it’s the people,” said Elder Wakolo, reciting a Maori proverb during his remarks at the ceremony.
“Christ is for the people,” he continued. “The temple, the house of the Lord, is for the people.”
During his message, Elder Wakolo recounted fragments of the church’s history in the area, including New Zealand’s first convert baptism, which took place in the nearby Karori Stream in 1854. He affirmed the actions taken by local church members’ ancestors or “tipuna” were done with the Savior and future generations in mind.
“Our tipuna thought about that,” he said. “It’s all about people.”
Elder Wakolo then went on to describe the purpose of Latter-day Saint temples, saying they are the conduit of “God’s greatest blessings.”
“In the temple, you’ll learn more of the plan of salvation and how to follow Christ’s example,” he said. “Everything in the temple testifies that God is our Father, that Jesus Christ is His son and the Savior of the world.”
Following his own message, Elder Wakolo offered a prayer where he dedicated the 3.35-acre site, located near Okowai Road and Whitford Brown Avenue, in Aotea, Porirua, New Zealand, for the construction of the Wellington temple.
This temple, Elder Wakolo said in prayer, will “stand not only as a symbol of our membership in the church, but as a sign of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families.”
During his prayer, Elder Wakolo also offered thanks for New Zealand’s religious freedoms and prayed for God to bless the nation’s leaders, as well as those of other nations based in Wellington, with “wisdom to protect this land as a haven of peace, with political and economic stability for all.”
After Elder Wakolo’s prayer, both invited guests and members of the public participated in turning the soil, symbolically marking the start of construction at the temple site.
According to a release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, the Wellington temple will serve a “growing community of nearly 120,000 Latter‑day Saints” in New Zealand — a truly growing community seeing the estimated number of Saints in New Zealand was closer to 115,000 when the temple was announced in April 2022.
The country’s other two temples are located in Hamilton, New Zealand, and Auckland, New Zealand. Once dedicated, the Wellington temple will become the church’s southernmost temple in the world.
