The new temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints got a bit taller Thursday afternoon.
Motorists cruising down Skyline Drive will now see a 9-foot-tall golden statue of an angel, representing the Mormon prophet Moroni, perched atop the temple’s cupola.
The angel was hoisted heavenward Thursday, horn to his lips, golden robes glinting in the midday sunlight. The fiberglass statue, covered in gold leaf, weighs about 300 pounds, according to press materials.
Moroni tops many, but not all, Mormon temples. The statue is a symbol of respect for “the role that he plays in the coming forth of the church,” said Debbi Weitzell, a public affairs worker for the church in the Tucson area.
Mormon tradition attributes some writings in the Book of Mormon to Moroni, and then in the 1820s, the prophet is said to have appeared to Joseph Smith as an angel to show him where those records were hidden.
A crowd gathered to watch Moroni’s ascent Thursday. Some were family and friends of the construction crew. Others just wanted a firsthand view of the hubbub.
“We heard about it about an hour ago,” said Melody Eberhard, standing under a canopy at the construction site. “We rushed out here because my little girls love the temple. It’s a symbol of our religion. They always ask if it’s finished.”
Her 3- and 6-year-old daughters, two of Eberhart’s nine children, played in front of fans cooling the waiting crowds, their clothing billowing around them.
As a crane lifted the statue into the air, the watching crowd whipped out smartphones to film the moment. When the crew began to ease the statue into place at the top of the temple after a delay, a girl in the crowd exclaimed, “Finally!”
Bystanders broke into cheers and then song, harmonizing the LDS hymn “The Spirit of God.”
“Everything in the faith points to the temple,” said Jakob Montandon, a Mormon missionary from Alpine, Utah. Montandon has been in Tucson for about 19 months and joined three other missionaries at the construction site Thursday.
Construction on the Tucson temple at 7281 N. Skyline Drive began in October 2015. As work on the exterior wraps up, the temple still has a ways to go before completion. The grounds and interior still need significant attention.
Mandy Martineau, who is the overseeing architect from the Salt Lake City firm FFKR Architects, said the style of the temple is art deco, and a desert motif will be evident in the details of design. The interior of this temple will have a baptistry in the west wing and two sealing rooms for married couples on the east end. The main floor will also have two instruction rooms with dressing rooms and other spaces in the basement.
Weitzell said some time in 2017 is her best estimate for the opening. At that point, the public will be invited to tour the temple in a series of open houses. After the dedication, a temple is considered a sacred space. Only church members in good standing can enter.
“You never really know how long it’s going to take,” Weitzell said of the construction timeline. “They work really hard to make sure they’re as nice as they can be. They make sure everything is perfect before they open.”
The Tucson temple is the sixth in Arizona. Temples were dedicated in 2014 in Gilbert and Phoenix.
The temple here will be 38,200 square feet. The total height of the structure stretches to 86 feet, Weitzell said.
Star archives show that the church purchased the land for $1.6 million in 2010, along with a nearby house for $390,000 some time later.
