Public Tours Announced Open House Scheduled May 6-13; Dedicatory Services May 21 Public tours of the newly completed Nashville Tennessee Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been announced. The First Presidency of the Church announced that tours begin Saturday, May 6, 2000, and run through Saturday, May 13, 2000. No tours will be held Sunday, May 7th. Latter-day Saint temples are considered "houses of the Lord" where the teachings of Jesus Christ are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism, and other sacred ordinances focusing on the eternal potential of family relationships. Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated Sunday, May 21, 2000, making it the 84th Church temple worldwide. Four separate sessions will be held to accommodate as many as possible of the Latter-day Saints in the temple district. A public cornerstone ceremony will be at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, May 21, 2000, prior to the first dedicatory session. The temple district includes the Tennessee Knoxville and Tennessee Nashville Missions and the Chattanooga, Franklin, Knoxville, Knoxville Cumberland, McMinnville, Nashville Tennessee, Hopkinsville, and Paducah Kentucky stakes of the Church. Previously, Church members from this area traveled to the Atlanta Georgia Temple. The temple will serve more than 23,000 Latter-day Saints. President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has expressed his desire to make the blessings of the temple more accessible to Latter-day Saints, many of whom must now travel long distances. By year's end, 100 temples will be operating. Currently, nearly 11 million people belong to the worldwide Church in 162 countries and territories. Church members first arrived in Tennessee in 1834.