The 96th operating temple for The Church of Jesus Christ will be dedicated this weekend in Caracas D.F. Venezuela.
The dedication service is scheduled for Sunday, 20 August, 2000. There will be four separate dedicatory sessions in order to accommodate as many as possible of the 72,000 Latter-day Saints who reside in the temple district. The dedication comes after a successful seven-day public open house.
Latter-day Saint temples are considered "Houses of the Lord" where the Savior's teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism, and other sacred ordinances that unite families for eternity.
The temple district includes the Venezuela Valencia, Venezuela Barcelona, Venezuela Maracaibo, and Venezuela Caracas Missions as well as 16 stakes.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley 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.
In announcing the concept of building smaller temples, President Hinckley explained these temples will be open "according to local demand, maybe only one or two days a week, but will offer the full range of temple ordinances." Plans call for 100 temples to be operating by the end of the year.
The first branch of the Church was organized in Venezuela on November 2, 1966. Nearly 11 million people belong to the worldwide Church.
