The process of building a Mormon temple

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a video, an infographic and a detailed text description of its approach to building temples on the Mormon Newsroom website Wednesday.

The downloadable infographic provides an overview of the five stages: funding, site selection, design, construction and completion. The YouTube video expounds on these stages with comments from Elder William R. Walker, executive director of the Temple Department, as well as construction workers and others who oversee the process.

The video, infographic and text all emphasize the unyielding attention to detail that is a part of the process, right down to the building materials and decorative motifs.

"The high building standards are in place for two main reasons," according to the MormonNewsroom.org article. "First, Latter-day Saints believe their temples are among the holiest places on earth and tributes to God; second, the church builds these temples to last hundreds of years."

The LDS Church has 142 temples in operation, with 14 under construction and 14 that have been announced but are not yet in the building stages.

Read the full step-by-step explanation of the temple-building process and find the infographic at MormonNewsroom.org.

Emily Eyring is the Faith and Family Web producer for DeseretNews.com.

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LDS Church releases step-by-step guide on how temples are built

MOUNT DORA A mound of dirt and a handful of shovels lay in the middle of the historic downtown area where city officials, residents and merchants joined Mayor Cathy Hoechst today in a ground breaking ceremony to kick off phase two of the streetscape construction project.

The $3 million construction effort calls for updates to the commercial downtown area, including replacing water and sewer lines, reconstructing sidewalks and ramps, and installing new landscape and irrigation.

"We are open. We will remain open for business," said Hoechst. "We want them [the public] to come down and help celebrate our construction, and then definitely come back on October 1 when it's all done and beautiful."

Construction started today on Third Avenue from Dora Drawdy Way to Baker Street. The area will be closed to traffic, but sidewalks and businesses will remain accessible and open. Parking will be available at the lot on Tremain Street and at the First United Methodist Church.

Additional construction on Donnelly Street from Fourth to Fifth Avenue will begin June 1 with the entire second phase complete by October 1, the city said.

"We have not painted this as a beautiful, wonderful picture during construction," Hoechst said. "The beautiful, wonderful picture comes after we're done. But we're going to be dealing with some pretty challenging construction."

After last year's tumultuous $4 million first-phase construction project, city officials pledged more dialogue with merchants and residents to keep disruptions at a minimum.

In addition to holding monthly meetings with merchants, officials have increased efforts to update the public by posting more frequently on social media and the city's website, and mailing residents updates, said city spokeswoman Kelda Senior.

Akhtar Hussain, owner of the Village Coffee Pot and Mount Dora Confectionary, said although the construction may impact his business, city officials have provided plenty of information about the project.

"[The] city is very cooperative," Hussain said. "They are very concerned about that."

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Phase 2 of downtown Mount Dora streetscape construction begins

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By Zoe Li, CNN

updated 3:46 AM EDT, Thu May 1, 2014

The Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou had been demolished by April 28.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- A massive church was razed to the ground this week in Wenzhou, a coastal Chinese city nicknamed the "Jerusalem of the East" for its large Christian population.

Local officials responsible for the demolition say the church was an illegal structure that was four times the permitted structure size. But Christian groups are concerned that the demolition signals an official campaign against religious organizations.

The Sanjiang Church took 12 years and 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) to build, reports Chinese media. Its soaring spires were a symbol of worship in a city that is fifteen percent Christian.

The church's demolition on Monday was preceded by a month-long standoff between supporters of the church and local authorities, with supporters occupying the church to protest its destruction.

The church was originally a government-approved project under the official "Three-Self Patriotic Movement," a state-sanctioned Protestant church. Last September it was lauded by the local government as a model engineering project.

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China demolishes $4.7 million landmark church

St. John the Baptist, Manayunks major Catholic Church, is a landmark in every sense of the word.But at 120 years old St. Johns is need of significant repair.

The church lords over the neighborhood from the corner of Cresson and Rector streets, towering over the elevated rail tracks and Pretzel Park, and it is an iconic part of the neighborhoods craggy skyline as seen from the Schuylkill Expressway. It is a community anchor where generations of Manayunk residents have gone to school, been baptized, mourned family, and come together in community. The church, designed by renowned 19th century ecclesiastical architect Patrick Charles Keeley, also boasts a fine architectural pedigree. (It is not listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places too few Catholic churches are - though it is surely eligible.)

Like too many aging churches, deferred maintenance has left St. John's in distress.

I spent my entire life here and I thought Id be carried out, said Deacon Casper Baratta, standing in the back of St. Johns on Good Friday. He went to school at St. Johns, spent his working life stewarding the parish buildings, and continues his service as part of the ministry. Now Baratta is not so sure hell outlive the church, and the very thought of that weighs on him.

Scaffolding went up around St. John the Baptists corner tower last fall, prompted by a faade inspection byODonnell & Nacarettolast year.Vitetta Architectsand Engineers andMacIntosh Engineeringperformed a more comprehensive conditions assessment of the building over the winter.

Tuesday night Architect Nan Gutterman and Engineer Bob MacIntosh presented their findings to a crowd of about 200 people who packed the churchs social hall. That meeting came after parishioners, past and present, have spent a few months worrying about the fate of St. Johns fears that were compounded by a lack of information from the church about the studies.

On the upside, the Vitetta study found the church sanctuary to be in sound condition. But the churchs imposing bell tower and some of its masonry both decorative and structural are areas of serious concern. To fix these urgent repairs, it will cost nearly $1.3 million and the work needs to be done before winter.

The masonry buttresses supporting the church are splitting and rotating, which weakens their structural integrity.

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$1.3 million needed for iconic Manayunk church's repairs

WENZHOU , China, April 30 (UPI) -- An 85,000-square foot Protestant church in the coastal city of Wenzhou, China, was demolished on orders of the Chinese Communist Party.

The $5 million Sanjiang Church, dominating the city skyline with soaring spires, high ceilings and stained glass and finished in 2013 after six years of construction, was four times the size building permits allowed, officials said. Activists, though, say the demolition was part of a campaign against Christians throughout Zhejiang province, and claim a dozen more churches in the area face demolition.

The demolition ended a month-long standoff between parishioners and authorities.

You have no idea how hard it was for us to build that church, said parishioner Yu Xinwei. The construction came after a twelve-year campaign to fund the church, and donations came from all over the world.

ChinaAid, an organization focused on persecution of Christians and based in Texas, said the church was brought down after comments by a Communist Party provincial secretary, Xia Baolong, who complained crosses atop steeples were too conspicuous and too flashy.

Although religion is closely regulated in China, Wenzhou is nicknamed Chinas Jerusalem. Renmin University anthropologist Cao Nanlai said, Wenzhou people are very well-known for their entrepreneurial spirit, and they express their Christianity through real estate. There have been other churches demolished but this one is the largest.

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Protestant church in Wenzhou, China, demolished

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released this preliminary site plan for expansion of its Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Monday, April 28, 2014. The rendering depicts four new buildings in the lower left hand quadrant, which is south of the current MTC.

LDS Church

PROVO The LDS Church released preliminary plans Monday for the expansion of its flagship Missionary Training Center in Provo.

Eventually those plans call for a new drive where families will drop off missionaries.

Construction on new, six-story buildings is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2015 and take two years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on its website.

The release does not say how many buildings are planned, but the rendering shows four new buildings in place of BYU's laundry and auxiliary maintenance facilities, which are being demolished.

A massive surge in the 18 months since the church lowered the age requirement has boosted the number of missionaries from 58,000 to 85,039.

Once the expansion is complete, the MTC will be able to accommodate 4,500 missionaries at a time, enough for all the missionary training activity expected in Provo.

The MTC currently is designed to hold 3,000 missionaries, but temporary changes like adding more missionaries to each room has increased capacity.

The surge also led the church to open a temporary facility a mile away from the MTC. The temporary facility opened 11 months ago along Freedom Boulevard and was expected to house an additional 1,700 missionaries in some of BYU's Wyview student apartments and at the privately owned Raintree Commons apartment complex.

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New MTC expansion plans revealed by LDS Church

The Anglican Diocese has admitted it was wrong to use a multimillion-dollar insurance payout from the quake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral to fund its transitional "cardboard'' cathedral.

The ongoing legal saga surrounding the damaged 132-year-old Christchurch landmark building's future has returned to court today.

In 2012, the High Court ruled that the Anglican church was entitled to deconstruct the building, but only if a new one - and not necessarily a replica - was built on the same Cathedral Square site.

The Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT), fronted by former MPs Jim Anderton and Philip Burdon, challenged the decision in the Court of Appeal, which last year upheld the High Court's findings.

And last December, the Supreme Court dismissed a further appeal against its deconstruction.

Cathedral custodians, the Church Property Trustees (CPT), last year released three design options for a future cathedral.

It included full restoration costing; a timber replacement, or contemporary design , which the church said it preferred.

A defended hearing is going ahead before Justice Graham Panckhurst at the High Court in Christchurch today.

CPT made an application to discharge a stay of demolition.

The move would allow them to start deconstructing the cathedral to a "safe'' height of two to three metres.

The rest is here:
Church 'made mistake' with cardboard cathedral funding

28 April 2014| last updated at 06:29PM

Chinas Communist Party keeps a tight grip on religion, fearing challenges to its authority, but allows worship at state-controlled churches.

Authorities had approved the construction of the Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou city with an area of 1,881 square metres (20,240 square feet) but the finished building was roughly four times that size, state media have reported.

Images posted online showed the church surrounded by several bright yellow excavators, some gouging holes in the side of the towering structure.

Today the Wenzhou Sanjiang church is being demolished, where will our more than 1,000 believers gather after this? Why tear down our church? Caoyuan Zhibing said in a microblog posting which included a photo said to be from the scene, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Thousands of worshippers have previously flocked to the church to protect it, but online postings said police locked down the area on Monday, blocking traffic.

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Demolition starts on contested church in China

For the Springfield Sun

Church Road between Bethlehem Pike and Haws Lane in Springfield Township will be closed beginning May 9 for water main installation by Aqua Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Crews will work weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Aug. 29.

During construction, Church Road motorists will be detoured over Bethlehem Pike, Paper Mill Road and Haws Lane. Motorists are advised to allow extra time when traveling through the area. Local access will be maintained up to the construction zone.

Motorists can check conditions on major roadways by visiting http://www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 680 traffic cameras. 511PA is also available by calling 511, and regional Twitter alerts are available on the 511PA website.

Church Road between Bethlehem Pike and Haws Lane in Springfield Township will be closed beginning May 9 for water main installation by Aqua Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Crews will work weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Aug. 29.

During construction, Church Road motorists will be detoured over Bethlehem Pike, Paper Mill Road and Haws Lane. Motorists are advised to allow extra time when traveling through the area. Local access will be maintained up to the construction zone.

Motorists can check conditions on major roadways by visiting http://www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 680 traffic cameras. 511PA is also available by calling 511, and regional Twitter alerts are available on the 511PA website.

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Church Road detour in Springfield begins May 9