Latter-day Saints temple in Tulsa will impact city socially, financially

TULSA The construction of a second Oklahoma temple for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will have both an economic and social impact on the community, Erran Persley, economic development director for the city of Tulsa, said Thursday.

After announcing in October plans for 20 new temples, church leaders revealed Monday the Tulsa Oklahoma Temple will be built on a 25.7-acre site at the northwest corner of 51st Street and 136th E Avenue.

“Large churches do have an impact on communities beyond their members,” Persely said, noting services they provide to unsheltered people, families living in poverty and others.

Persely said 2016 data shows the annual social economic impact of U.S. churches is $1.2 trillion. “That trickles down to the local economy,” he said.

Construction of the 29,600-square-foot temple and the jobs that come with that will have a significant economic impact as well, Persely said.

And because LDS temples are regional facilities, the new temple will draw worshipers who will stay, eat and shop in Tulsa, he said.

Meeting houses are where Latter-day Saints congregations gather for Sunday services, but temples are the site of marriage ceremonies, baptisms and other ceremonies that “unite families for eternity.”

Oklahoma has nearly 53,000 members in about 95 congregations, according to church officials. Before the first Oklahoma temple opened in July 2000 at 12030 N. Mustang Road in Yukon, church members had to drive to other parts of the country to go to a Latter-day Saints temple.

That was the case again when the 10,890-square-foot temple closed for an extensive renovation from October 2017 until May 2019.

Church leaders did not provide a construction timeline for the Tulsa temple, but LDS temple projects generally take years.

A public open house for the 32,240-square-foot Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple begins Friday following several years of construction. Church leaders announced the second Pennsylvania temple was coming in April 2020 and held a groundbreaking in August 2021. It will be dedicated Sept. 15.

Temples are the church’s most sacred place, considered by members to be the house of the Lord. Once a temple is dedicated, entrance is reserved for LDS Church members.

“This is a time when we open the doors wide to the public to learn a little bit more about what takes place in these sacred places of worship for us, and to be able to ask questions and to learn a little bit more about our faith and what we believe,” Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman said at a news conference and media tour Monday.

Officials said the Pittsburgh temple is the 196th operating temple of the LDS Church. It will serve more than 29,000 members in over 80 congregations.

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