2000 Dedication of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
What history has termed the “Trail of Tears” happened some 160 years before President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, dedicated the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple. Thousands of Native American refugees — including Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole — walked a path of disease and death from the southeast into what the federal government designated “Indian Territory.” A land rush brought white settlers. The 20th century brought a domestic terrorist bombing and devastating tornadoes to the state.
Thus, the phrase “emotional significance” was aptly used by H. Jerrell Chesney, the first president of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple, at the July 30, 2000, dedication. He said, “After being driven and suffering as they did, after the government then designated this as the official home of the Lamanite people, now the gospel is here for them with the full benefits [including temple worship].”
Among the some 9,000 Latter-day Saints from the temple district attending the dedication were descendants of those Native Americans and early settlers — ancestors and progeny tried in affliction.
In events leading up to and including the dedication, faith was often mentioned. The groundbreaking ceremony was July 3, 1999 — just two months after a mile-wide tornado ripped through south Oklahoma City. In his remarks prior to dedicating the site, Elder Rex D. Pinegar, a General Authority Seventy and president of the North America Southwest Area, described his tour of the disaster area. He said there was nothing left standing but the people.
Not much was left standing but Oklahomans at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in the aftermath of a domestic terrorist bombing on April 19, 1995. Local Church leaders, including bishops, worked in the ministerial pool to provide support to those who had lost loved ones. One survivor, a Church member, said, “We have been tested in the fire, and we have not been found wanting.”
For many, the dedicatory services in 2000 were a time of reflection. Among those attending were Douglas and Anne Pemberton, members of the Anadarko Branch, Lawton Oklahoma Stake, and direct descendants of early Native Americans here. Brother Pemberton, of the Chippewa Tribe, had received prior to the dedication five generations of family history and pictures from relatives.
The house of the Lord in Oklahoma City, he said, “is sacred and on sacred ground. Our ancestors have waited. They rejoice in this day.”
Bishop James Alen Howard of the Oklahoma City 2nd Ward, Oklahoma City Oklahoma South Stake, gathered for the dedication with his family. In November 1997, when he was called as a bishop, he sensed the Lord’s work in Oklahoma would accelerate. Then three and a half months prior to the dedication, he was diagnosed with cancer.
Sitting in a wheelchair, with his wife standing behind him and her hands on his shoulders, Bishop Howard expressed his feelings: “It helps my testimony to know God lives and Jesus is the Christ. This is His edifice we’ve dedicated so we can do His work.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “We pray that Thou wilt bless all who come as patrons, that they may do so with a spirit of love and total unselfishness to carry forward a great work in behalf of those who are helpless to help themselves.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple here.
2019 Rededication of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
A year and a half after the house of the Lord in the Sooner State was closed for extensive renovations, President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, rededicated the temple in Oklahoma City. That May 19, 2019, event came more than 150 years after the Apostle’s great-grandfather, Heinrich Eyring, began his six-year mission in the Indian Territory Mission.
President Eyring related with emotion, “As I walked through the temple and I looked at all motifs that had to do with Oklahoma and the American Indians, I felt my great-grandfather’s spirit.”
Though the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple is in the suburb of Yukon, a significant drive from the downtown area, some 21,000 people toured the temple in an open house preceding the rededication. That number included Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, U.S. Sen. James Lankford and U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin.
Participating in a temple dedication “never gets old,” said President Eyring during the rededication. “In fact, every time you enter a [new] temple, you feel the Spirit of the Lord even more. What a blessing it will be for the people.”
The Apostle urged members in the temple district — which included Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri — not to forget the rededication. “Don’t forget that our ancestors are real. They are waiting, and when we do their [temple] work, the warm feeling [we feel] is the Spirit. That warm feeling will stay with you forever.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “We are grateful for the faith that has made possible the great privilege of having a temple in this place. Because of the faith, strength, goodness and selfless service of those who have labored in this house, thousands have been blessed — in this world and in the spirit world. We are grateful for the faithful tithe payers of the Church, who have made it possible for us to offer this holy house to Thee and Thy Beloved Son.”
Read the rededication prayer of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple here.
Timeline of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
A house of the Lord was announced for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on March 17, 1999, the same year a catastrophic tornado ripped through the area. The next year, on July 30, 2000, President James E. Faust — second counselor in the First Presidency — dedicated the Oklahoma City temple.
This temple, in the suburb of Yukon, was closed Oct. 15, 2017, for extensive renovations. Rededicating the sacred edifice was President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the First Presidency, on May 19, 2019. The Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple was the first temple in the Sooner State.
Architecture and Design of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
The renovated house of the Lord in Oklahoma City is 10,890 square feet and consists of a one-story structure framed with wood and steel, along with a four-layered tower with a golden-colored statue of the angel Moroni atop it. Its exterior is light-beige limestone.
The exterior of the newly remodeled Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple was redesigned to improve size, entry and tower design. Along with classical adornment, the sacred edifice exhibits local motifs, including the symbol of the Indian blanket wildflower — Oklahoma's state wildflower — along with the shape of wheat and Native American dreamcatchers.
The smaller temple includes two instruction rooms and two sealing rooms. The original exterior of the sacred edifice was white marble quarried in Vermont. A golf course and quiet residential neighborhood sit near the temple site.
Interior Photos of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple
