CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Penn. (RNS) — As houses of worship across much of the Western world shutter their doors due to shrinking attendance, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in the process of adding more than 150 new temples around the globe.

One of the newest completed temples, located in the Cranberry Township suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is open to the public for two weeks (Aug. 16-31, except Sundays) before being officially dedicated on Sept. 15. This rare occasion allows the wider community to walk through a site that will in the future be closed to the public and for LDS church members to share their beliefs and practices.

“We want to be a part of the community, and we want people to understand what the temple is, and to see what happens inside. I think after it’s dedicated, because only we go in the temple, then that’s how people have all sorts of misconceptions about what happens in the temple,” said Linda Johnson, a Cranberry resident and president of the women’s organization the Relief Society in the Pittsburgh North congregations. “But when you come through, the temple is very Christ-centered.”

She added that she hopes visitors from the surrounding community, which she described as very welcoming to people of all faiths, would feel peace and God’s love for them at the temple. 

The Pittsburgh location is the second temple in Pennsylvania, following the Philadelphia temple; a third temple in Harrisburg is also being built. Temples aren’t to be confused with meetinghouses, the buildings where church members meet routinely for Sunday worship. There are seven LDS congregations in the Northern Pittsburgh area, and the temple district encompasses roughly 29,000 members in more than 80 congregations in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, northeastern Ohio and a sliver of western New York. Previously, church members in the Pittsburgh area had to travel three hours for temple ceremonies.

President Russell M. Nelson, who leads the LDS Church, announced the Pittsburgh temple in April 2020. The slew of new temples isn’t necessarily correlated with membership growth, said Chris Hoke, president of the Pittsburgh North Stake and a former Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle. While LDS has seen slow but steady growth in recent years, the new temples are often a matter of putting these deeply sacred rituals within reach.

Chris Hoke, left, and Linda Johnson pose outside the new temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)

“Right now it’s tied to bringing God’s blessings to all of God’s children,” said Hoke. “There are people that have to fly to another continent to go to the temple, and President Nelson is determined to get a temple in an area that is accessible to all the saints in the world so they can learn more about the Father in heaven and Jesus Christ.”

Operating and maintaining a 32,240-square-foot temple is no small task. Approximately 650 volunteers from the temple district will work there after the dedication, coming twice a month or more. On Thursday, volunteers were already at the site, donning reflective vests over dress pants and button downs to direct traffic. A row of volunteers sat under a tent at the entrance to the temple waiting to adorn visitors’ feet with shoe coverings, and others were stationed throughout the temple. Kenneth Witzel, director of communications for the Pittsburgh Coordinating Council, said they expect around 3,000 LDS volunteers to serve during the open house.

The building is adjacent to a pre-existing Cranberry meetinghouse dedicated in 2005, and the two structures, separated by a parking lot, are also connected via a small bridge — a nod to Pittsburgh, the city of bridges.

According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, entering the celestial room in the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple symbolizes coming into the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ. (Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. © 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.)

While many LDS temples share similar architectural elements — spires, light-colored exteriors — the Pittsburgh temple is embellished with motifs that reflect the surrounding area, including Pennsylvania’s state flower (the mountain laurel) and the region’s pink and white dogwood blossoms. Just inside the front door, visitors are greeted by a near-life-size portrait of Christ, and most rooms in the temple feature art depicting Jesus, or altars, which Hoke said point to Jesus’ sacrifice.

“It provides this great blessing for us that we can come more often,” Hoke said about the new location. “It allows for us to participate in the work in the temple and really continue to learn to grow and progress toward our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ. And that’s the whole purpose of building the temples so close to the saints.”

The rooms are filled with soft earth tones, frosted stained glass, plush carpets and lifelike paintings. During the open house, visitors learn about several of the temple’s features, including the baptismal font, upheld by 12 impressively large oxen, where members can baptize deceased family members by proxy; the celestial room, a place with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers designed to reflect God’s presence; and the sealing room, primarily used for marriage ceremonies, where two mirrors are situated on opposite sides of an altar to create a visual representation of being sealed into an eternal family.

The baptismal font inside the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple. (Photo courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. © 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.)

“It’s very humbling, because this temple represents the faith of so many who were here before us,” said Johnson, who said there are people in this area whose family ties to the LDS church go back to the 1800s. In the early 1900s, she said, those families went without any meetinghouses or church structures at all. “I hope that we don’t take it for granted.”