Perched above the point where Ina Road turns into Skyline Drive, the new temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looms large in front of the Catalina Mountains.
That was intentional, said Elder Larry Wilson, executive director of the church’s Temple Department, on Tuesday’s media tour of the temple.
The tour preceded the public open-house tours that begin Saturday, June 3, and continue through Saturday, June 24, except on Sundays.
After a cultural celebration on Saturday, Aug. 12, the temple will be dedicated on Sunday, Aug. 13, and closed to the public.
The temple only opens again to the public when renovations are needed, roughly 40 years or more from now, Wilson said. Only members of the Mormon church in good standing and with a recommendation from leadership can enter what Mormons consider their most sacred space for worship.
As of Tuesday, the temple had already received more than 85,000 reservations for its open house, said Jana Cherrington, a Tucson church member and public affairs worker.
Volunteers will donate thousands of hours during the open house, said Gary Rasmussen, coordinator of the open house and dedication committees.
You can make a reservation at templeopenhouse.lds.org to tour the temple. The tour begins at the meetinghouse at 939 W. Chapala Drive with a short film. Visitors are then bused to the temple.
The temple, the sixth built in Arizona, will serve about 30,000 Mormons in the area. The 38,216-square-foot temple at 7281 N. Skyline Drive sits on a 7.37-acre property.
The dome, covered in zinc shingles, is unique to the Tucson temple and draws from landmarks such as the Pima County Courthouse and Mission San Xavier del Bac, Wilson said.
Although the grandeur inside is meant to draw the focus heavenward, outside influences do enter into the interior design. Muted greens and teals and sunset colors, shapes inspired by cacti and ocotillo and paintings of desert scenes — some by Tucson artists — repeat throughout the temple. Art deco elements are also present. “The desert is a peaceful place, and we strive to make temples places of peace and holiness,” Wilson said on the tour.
As a guest steps into the temple, the noise of a tour bus humming outside ceases when the doors close. Marble in this room and the baptistry came from Turkey and Greece.
When the temple opens for its intended purpose after the dedication, church members who visit will change out of their street clothes upon arriving and into white clothing that represents equality before God and the purity his followers seek, Wilson said.
In the baptistry, church members can baptize deceased ancestors who were never baptized by proxy, in a pool that rests on the backs of 12 large oxen representing the 12 biblical tribes of Israel.
Unlike meetinghouses, where Mormons gather for Sunday services, members of the church use the temple for special ceremonies called ordinances and to make promises to God. Following those promises, or covenants, a visitor might transition into the celestial room to pray and reflect. This represents returning to the presence of God, Wilson said. The quiet space is one of the more ornate rooms in the temple, with a crystal chandelier dangling from the center of the room.
Crystal pendants also hang from ceilings in the temple’s two sealing rooms, where couples and families are bound together eternally. A couple being married would kneel across from each other at an altar in the room’s center and hold hands during the ceremony.
“This room is why we build temples,” said Cherrington on the tour. “So families can be together forever.”
One Tucson bride will be the first to prepare for a temple wedding, or sealing, in the bride’s room beneath its Swarovski-crystal chandelier. A few have already signed up.
Having a Tucson temple makes visiting that much easier for local Mormons, who previously trekked to Mesa or Gila Valley. Julie Brown said she travels to the Mesa temple, where she was sealed, about once a month. With the opening of Tucson’s temple, she hopes to visit every week.
