Rededication Date Announced for Houston Texas Temple
Contributed By Marianne Holman Prescott, Church News staff writer
The First Presidency announced Thursday that the Houston Texas Temple will be rededicated on Sunday, April 22, 2018.
The Houston Texas Temple will be rededicated on Sunday, April 22, 2018, the First Presidency announced on Thursday, February 8.
After sustaining significant water damage in August 2017 from flooding from Hurricane Harvey, the temple has been closed the past few months for repairs.
During the storm, rains breached the temple beginning on August 26, flooding the temple annex building, the temple's basement and the main floor. Water reached more than a foot high in the first floor and the second floor was not damaged. (See related story.)
“President M. Russell Ballard will preside over the single rededicatory session, which will be by invitation only,” it says in the letter from the First Presidency announcing the temple rededication. “No open house or cultural celebration events will be held in conjunction with the rededication.”
The rededication will not be broadcast to meetinghouses in the temple district and the three-hour block of meetings will continue as normal for all units on the day of the rededication, Sunday, April 22.
The temple is scheduled to open for patrons on Tuesday, April 24.
The Houston Texas Temple is the Church's 97th operating temple and the second temple built in Texas. It was first announced on September 30, 1997, and a groundbreaking ceremony took place a few months later on June 13, 1998. President Gordon B. Hinckley offered the prayer at the dedication held on August 26, 2000.
