The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday that construction of the Jacksonville Florida Temple will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday, Jan. 24.
As it now stands, this groundbreaking date means the Jacksonville Florida Temple will be the first temple to break ground in 2026, according to the Church News.
Presiding over the Jacksonville temple groundbreaking ceremony will be Elder Massimo De Feo, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the church’s United States Southeast Area Presidency. Attendance to the ceremony will be by invitation only, according to the church’s Monday release.
“The ordinances and covenants of the temple are of eternal significance,” said the late church President Russell M. Nelson, just before announcing the Jacksonville temple and 19 others in October 2023.
“We continue to build more temples to make these sacred possibilities become a reality in each of your lives.”
To be the church’s fifth operating temple in Florida, the Jacksonville Florida Temple will serve the nearly 180,000 Latter-day Saints in roughly 280 congregations that call the state home.
It will be a single-story edifice of approximately 29,000 square feet, built on a 6.6-acre site at 3323 Loretto Road, Jacksonville, Florida. And will join the state’s Fort Lauderdale and Tallahassee temples, currently in operation; the Orlando Florida Temple, currently under renovation; and the Tampa Florida Temple, which began construction earlier this year.
Site map for the Jacksonville Florida Temple. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints