A short distance away from the historic Kirtland Temple, a newly constructed temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ohio will soon be dedicated.
This temple — the Cleveland Ohio Temple — will be dedicated Sunday, Aug. 16, by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, according to a news release published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. It will be dedicated 190 years after the Kirtland Temple — the very first temple of the Church of Jesus Christ — was dedicated in 1836, also in Ohio.
Preceding the Cleveland temple’s dedication, a public open house period running every Monday through Saturday from June 18 to July 3 will enable guests of all faiths and ages to tour the newly built temple.
Tours for the media will be held Monday, June 15, while tours for invited guests will be conducted June 16-17.
“I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple,” said the late President Russell M. Nelson, just moments before announcing the Cleveland temple in the April 2022 general conference. “Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”
The Cleveland Ohio Temple was one of 17 temples announced by President Nelson in April 2022. Its specific location at 5977 Brecksville Road in Independence, Ohio, was later announced, placing the temple approximately 20 miles southwest from the historic Kirtland Temple.
The Kirtland Temple — located at 9020 Chillicothe Road in Kirtland, Ohio — was the first Latter-day Saint temple built since the Church of Jesus Christ was officially organized in April 1830.
The Community of Christ church later secured title to the building and preserved and cared for the building for more than a century. In March 2024, the Community of Christ church transferred ownership of the Kirtland Temple, plus other buildings and artifacts, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Church of Jesus Christ announced then that the Kirtland Temple would remain a historical building and not be converted to an operating Latter-day Saint temple.
“We are deeply honored to assume the stewardship of these sacred places, documents and artifacts,” said President Nelson in a joint statement between the two churches. “We thank our friends at Community of Christ for their great care and cooperation in preserving these historical treasures thus far. We are committed to doing the same.”
Other Latter-day Saint temples in Ohio include the Columbus Ohio Temple, which has been in operation since it was dedicated in 1999, and the Cincinnati Ohio Temple, which was announced in April 2024.
The dedicatory session of the Cleveland Ohio Temple will be broadcast and rebroadcast to all church units in the temple district on Sunday, Aug. 16, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.
Upon its dedication, the Cleveland temple will become the church’s second operating temple in Ohio and the first dedicated in the state in the 21st century. It will help serve the state’s nearly 66,000 Latter-day Saints.
Read the Kirtland Temple’s dedicatory prayer, recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, here, and the dedicatory prayer for the Columbus Ohio Temple here.
