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Members of the public can tour the Willamette Valley Temple for a two-week period starting April 23, excluding Sundays. The temple will serve more than 28,000 Mormon residents in Lane County and surrounding counties.
This story has been updated to include the temple’s address.
Inside the white concrete walls of the Willamette Valley Temple, everything is now in place.
Crystal chandeliers hang from soaring ceilings, and plush carpets cushion each visitor’s steps. Paintings of Bible stories, waterfalls and rivers line hallways. White temple clothing hangs in neat rows, ready to be borrowed.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, is opening a temple in Springfield this week after nearly four years of construction.
The Willamette Valley Temple, located at 300 International Way, will serve more than 28,000 Mormons throughout Lane County and beyond, providing a sacred space closer to home for many Oregonian church members. It is the third Mormon temple in Oregon, following locations in Lake Oswego and Central Point.
Church leaders and local congregants gathered Monday, April 20, to showcase the building to local media in a guided tour. Community members can tour the building from April 23 to May 9, except Sundays. After the June 7 dedication, people who are not church members will no longer be allowed in the building, according to church rules.
Elder Brett Nattress, a Mormon church leader from Salt Lake City, quoted Psalm 46:10 before the tour began, “Be still and know that I am God.”
“That Scripture for me is the essence of the temple,” Nattress said.
”It’s a holy place. It’s a place where we receive our highest ordinances, our highest sacraments, and we are just grateful for the opportunity that we have to share that with our friends and neighbors.”
A richly endowed place of ritual
Members of the Mormon faith do not attend temples for their weekly Sunday service. Rather, temples serve as places where marriages, intergenerational baptisms and other binding ceremonies and promises are performed.
Temples are paid for through church members’ tithes, said Nattress, which are collected from congregations worldwide. While church leaders declined to share the price of the Willamette Valley Temple, the temple’s factsheet provided to members of the media listed the origin of each piece of elegant interior decor.
Marble and other stones from Italy, Brazil and Vietnam decorate the most formal ceremonial rooms. A Utah glass artist crafted the stained-glass scenes of vining pink flowers and the McKenzie and Willamette rivers that fill windowpanes.
Other elements, including crystal and bronze lighting fixtures, stained cherry woodwork, and brass baptismal font railings and door handles, come from a mix of Pacific Northwest makers and craftspeople from across the country and world.
A celestial focus
Entering the temple is a process.
Members of the church must have a “temple recommend,” a card issued by a local bishop who interviews the individual to ensure they are following the rules and beliefs of the Mormon religion and are worthy of entry. Temple recommendations are valid for two years and are checked at the Welcome Desk at the front of the temple.
Then, a visitor must change into the white clothing, a symbol of purity and equality among all other visitors. Church members can either borrow white clothes or bring their own.
As media members toured the interior of the Willamette Valley Temple, Nattress, his wife Shawna, and another Salt Lake City church leader, Elder Brian Holmes, explained the purpose of each room.
The baptistry featured a small pool resembling a hot tub, held up by 12 brass oxen. Mormons can perform intergenerational baptisms and binding ceremonies for spouses and families on behalf of ancestors who were not a part of the church in the baptistry. Youth as young as 12 can perform these ceremonies during the week, before and after school. The oxen represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Chairs and desks for “witnesses” who record the ceremonies and ensure they are done according to the rules overlook the baptismal pool.
Other rooms included changing rooms, the bride’s room, instruction rooms, and sealing rooms for marriages and family ceremonies. Marriage is considered the “crowning ordinance” in the Mormon faith and is believed to be eternal, lasting beyond death.
At the center of the temple is the building’s most holy space: the Celestial Room. The square room’s 35-foot ceiling, five-tier crystal chandelier and long, gold framed mirrors offer a grand place for quiet contemplation; a representation, for Mormons, of heaven.
Limited-time public access
The temple will be dedicated June 7 by one of the Mormon church’s Apostles, among the highest leaders in the Latter-day Saints church hierarchy. The day will include a special service with music, speakers and a dedicatory prayer. The ceremony is only open to members.
Until then, however, local church members said they are excited to show nonmembers their new temple.
“We hope those of our friends who are not members of our faith, that you see that as we go to the temple to feel his love, to feel a sacred holiness that comes when we’re in his house,” Nattress said. “But most importantly, that when we leave the house of the Lord, that we’re better neighbors, we’re better friends, we’re more kind, more gentle.”
