“Church and World Leaders Speak at Lighting of D.C. Temple Grounds,” Ensign, Mar. 2003, 76–77
Church and World Leaders Speak at Lighting of D.C. Temple Grounds
It was a scene unimaginable a few years ago when Ukraine was part of the communist Soviet Union and had no freedom of religion—and no missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But a Ukrainian diplomat told ambassadors from 45 countries at a Christmas lighting ceremony on 4 December 2002 at the Washington D.C. Temple that his country’s future hinges on restored freedom. He even openly hoped for a temple in Kiev—announced by the Church in 1998 but not yet under construction—to be built soon.
“I believe that a Mormon temple will soon be built in Kiev, and there will be even more opportunities of ensuring one of the fundamental human rights: freedom of conscience,” said Volodymyr Yatsenkivskyi, deputy chief of mission for the Ukraine embassy.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other local and area Church leaders welcomed Mr. Yatsenkivskyi and more than 700 invited guests at the temple’s 25th annual Festival of Lights.
Mr. Yatsenkivskyi was a last-minute replacement speaker for Ukraine ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, who planned to help switch on the 300,000 Christmas lights on the temple grounds but had to return to Ukraine.
Mr. Yatsenkivskyi was an especially appropriate replacement since in a previous job as a professor he helped teach Russian to the first LDS missionaries sent to Ukraine. “It was a tremendous opportunity to meet very nice, spiritual people,” he said.
He compared the illumination and excitement evoked by the temple’s Christmas lights to the greater light that restored freedom has brought to his country. “Freedom opens [to] every nation the way to reach God and love,” Mr. Yatsenkivskyi said. “We are looking for light. … Light is life.”
Elder Maxwell also addressed the congregation. He told ambassadors that God, who created a universe of unimaginable wonders, still places His highest value on each person.
Elder Maxwell showed pictures from the Hubble space telescope to help illustrate the vastness of space and demonstrate how millions of galaxies exist, each containing billions of stars similar to the sun and millions of earthlike planets.
“It should fill us with reverence and awe, especially those of us who may think that we—or what we do—are the center of the universe,” he said, receiving laughs from diplomats.
But “we are at the center of what He is doing,” Elder Maxwell told the crowd. “He has told us in the scriptures it is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. We can’t even number His creations. He can. And He desires us to be happy.”
Elder Maxwell added: “Long ago when a special child lay in a manger, a special star appeared. It didn’t just show up that evening. It had to have been placed in its orbit centuries before in a trajectory that would make it appear at that special moment of time to announce the birth of a special child.”
He said, “Just as there is divine design in the universe, so each of us has been placed in our own orbits in this life to love, to serve, to help light the world.”
The Washington D.C. Temple shines amidst Christmas lights. Church and world leaders gathered for the lighting ceremony in December. (Photograph by R. Cole Goodwin, Church News.)