Rachel Kerr James was the first medical professional to arrive on the scene of the US embassy bombing in Saigon in March 1965. She saw the smoke, mangled metal, and scores of people wounded by the blast that ripped a hole in the side of the five-story concrete building. She knew immediately what she had to do.

I am going to stay here as long as necessary, she said to her husband, Sam. It could be a long time.

James spent three days tending to the wounded at the embassyand 13 years caring for the people of Vietnam during the war. A Southern Baptist missionary nurse, she volunteered with the Red Cross, set up medical clinics in the villages around Saigon, and launched a mobile clinic, all while raising four children and helping her husband plant churches and start a seminary.

James died in Virginia in April. She was 88.

I felt God called me to be a foreign missionary, James said. My whole life has been centered around this call.

James was born October 17, 1934, in Durham, North Carolina. Her father, Theodore Kerr, worked at a local hospital. Her mother, Ethel Peed Kerr, was a homemaker who had once dreamed of being a missionary and passed her passion for mission work on to her daughter.

James accepted Jesus as her personal savior at 14. Shortly afterward, she started to feel a call to nursing and missions that was, as she later described it, increasingly definite. As she started to date, however, that call was challenged. Few if any of the young men she knew were committed to missions. Fewer still liked the idea of getting married to a woman who wanted to be a missionary.

One day, praying in church before dawn, she was convicted that following Christ had to come before anything elseeven getting married and having a family. She stretched herself out on the altar as the sun rose through and gave her life to God.

Lord, I want you to know I am completely willing and ready to go alone, she said. But, Lord, if you send me somebody, and we can go together, that will be okay too.

Two years later, as a nursing student at Duke University, she was invited to dinner at the home of a woman from her church. The woman also invited her nephew, a Navy veteran who had a born-again experience while serving in Korea. Sam James was immediately smitten with this woman who was so committed to the Great Commission. He drove her back to her dormitory, and the two sat in the parking lot until midnight, when all the nursing students had to be in for curfew.

Before they parted, they prayed that God would guide them on their respective paths to serve himeach hoping, but not saying aloud, that those paths might merge.

Sam and Rachel James were married on August 8, 1957.

As they prepared for mission work, Sam took a job as a pastor of a Baptist congregation in rural North Carolina. James had her first child there, and then her second.

The growing family struggled in those first few years of ministry. Political tensions divided the church, and some people started leaving when they heard Sam was planning to allow Black people to attend. He had not thought about trying to integrate the congregation, Sam later wrote in a memoir, but he was deeply unsettled by the racial views in the church. He demanded the church vote on whether to keep him.

God loves all mankind no matter where in the world they live, what skin color they have, what economic strata they belong to, or what social standing they have, he preached. Above all, God loves every single one of us.

The congregation agreed to keep their young pastor and allow Black people to sit in one section of the sanctuary if they came. (None did.)

In 1961, the Jameses were accepted as candidates by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Rachel James attended orientation while three months pregnant with her third child.

They left by boat from San Francisco in March 1961, with a three-year-old, an 18-month-old, and a newborn in tow.

When they landed in Hong Kong, however, the Jameses were informed that their visa applications had been rejected. The South Vietnamese government, run by Catholics, was concerned about American Protestants undercutting support for the regime. They appealed and waited. They waited all spring, all summer, and into the fall.

Yet when it seemed like they would never get approval, Rachel James became convinced the authorities were going to change their minds. Baptist churches in the United States had a calendar telling them when to pray for missionaries, and they were scheduled to pray for her on her birthday, October 17. She was certain it would make a difference.

On October 17, the Jameses were notified their visas had been approved. They became the sixth Baptist missionary family to go to Vietnam.

The Jameses spent two years in intensive classes learning Vietnamese, taking turns studying and watching the children. As they learned the language and the culture, they began to love the people.

It wasnt always easy, though. There were small but embarrassing faux pas, like the time Sam offended a guest by eating first or the time he couldnt think of the vocabulary for plucked and asked a woman in the market for a chicken without clothes. She called everyone over to laugh at him.

There were more serious challenges too. The American government started sending combat troops into the country, and fighting increased. The South Vietnamese government, worried about dissidents, outlawed all meetings of more than three people, making all of the Jameses Bible studies illegal. Rachel wasnt legally allowed to start a clinic, because all the Vietnamese doctors had been drafted into the military and she needed a doctor to supervise.

In 1967, as they began their second term in Vietnam, however, an American army doctor showed up at the church they had planted in a suburb of Saigon. S. Leo Record Jr., a Wesleyan from North Carolina, had received orders to provide medical care to the South Vietnamese. But he didnt have anyone to translate. He heard the Baptist missionaries spoke Vietnamese and was shocked to find that one of them was a trained nurse who wanted to start a clinic.

James and Record teamed up to provide medical care. They opened weekly clinics in the villages around Saigon, each serving 100 to 200 people. Around the same time, James had her fourth child.

In 1973, when President Richard Nixon started withdrawing troops, most of the medical personnel in Saigon were sent home. The army sold James all the medical equipment she wanted, though, and she teamed up with a Catholic doctor and established a mobile clinic, driving to a different place each day to continue the work.

James insisted on continuing, even when the work was threatened by Northern Vietnamese soldiers.

Sam, she told her husband, I just cant give up the ministry God has placed in my care. The need is just too great. I simply will not, cannot quit.

James continued for another two years, until the South Vietnamese government fell and the family had to be evacuated.

Back in the US, James supported her husband as he oversaw the construction and development of a missionary training center in Richmond, Virginia, known today as the International Learning Center. Sam went on to serve as East Asia area director for the International Missions Board and then vice president for creative leadership development.

A missionary wife goes through cycles of life and ministering, she said. There are times when she is free to do what she wants to do. Then she may enter a cycle where she is busy almost full-time carrying out the responsibilities that come naturally to a wife and mother. All of this is the Lords work and in his will and timing.

In 2002, the Jameses were allowed to return to Vietnam to see the church they helped start in Saigon with $50,000 taken up in Lottie Moon offerings in Southern Baptist churches. The church survived the Communist rule under Vietnamese leadership and continues to this day. The couple made regular trips back to Vietnam to teach until Jamess health no longer allowed her to travel.

James is predeceased by her third child, Philip. She is survived by her husband and children, Deborah Winans, Stephen James, and Michael James. A memorial service will be held at First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, on May 13.

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Died: Rachel Kerr James, Missionary Nurse to War-Torn Vietnam ... - ChristianityToday.com

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 May 2023 at 9:14 am

MEDINA Jim Friday marvels at the immensity of the Medina Sandstone industry. At its peak from 1890 to 1910, there were 50 quarries in the county employing 2,000 people.

The countys population in 1900 was 30,164, according to the census. (In 2020, the population was 40,343).

That was a huge percentage of the workforce, said Friday, an Albion native who lives in North Chili. It was just a huge industry.

Friday, 75, is a Kodak retiree and loves local history. He wrote a book about the local sandstone industry, The History of Sandstone in Orleans County NY. The 108-page book includes many photos of the countys dominant industry.

He spoke about the big business last week during the Medina Historical Societys monthly meeting.

The quarries produced stone in some of the finest buildings in communities along the canal. They were used in churches, mansions and other public buildings. The stone also was utilized for sidewalks, curbs and street pavers.

The quarries were independently owned and competed against each other. The owners brought in immigrants from Poland, Italy, Britain and Ireland.

Friday is a descendant of Polish immigrants. His paternal grandparents (John Piatek/Friday and Stefania Siebak) lived on Moore Street in Albion. His maternal grandparents (Tony Rice and Rose Lucas) owned the farm at the end of Orchard Street along the canal in Albion. When he was a child, Friday spent a lot of time in Albion and often swam in the quarries.

He explores the geology of how and when the stone was formed, the rise and fall of the regional quarry industry and what remains today.

Jim Friday of North Chili was the featured speaker at the Medina Historical Society meeting last week at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library.

Friday presents this timeline of the Medina Sandstone industry. During construction of Erie Canal from 1817 to 1825 large deposits of sandstone were discovered. In 1836, John Ryan opened the first commercial sandstone quarry in Medina to supply stone for the second expansion of the canal.

In 1906, there were 50 quarries in the county, employing 2,000 workers. From 1919 t 1930, there were only a few independently leased quarries.

He includes includes vintage quarry photos from the early 1900s that give insight into the products, work conditions, methods and equipment used to quarry the stone. The experiences of some of the many immigrants who toiled in the quarries are presented along with photos of stone structures that remain as prominent reminders of a bygone era, Friday said.

The quarries were consolidated by New York City bankers, which led to the demise of most of the local operations. It was also cheaper to use cement rather than sandstone in buildings and public works projects.

For more information about the book, click here or send Friday an email at photos.JimFriday@gmail.com.

It was a lot of fun to learn about the history of Albion and Orleans County, Friday said. The sandstone industry was huge in Orleans County, and it is interwoven with the history of the Erie Canal.

Friday also serves as the coordinator of the orleans.nygenweb.net website that includes a wealth of local genealogy data about Orleans County. The late Sharron Kerridge and her friends were the driving force behind establishing this website.

Link:
Albion native chronicles rise and fall of Medina Sandstone industry - Orleans Hub

In March 2020, the Lyon County Historical Society received a Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant, also known as a Legacy Grant for $9,500 for CollectiveAccess Data Conversion. The project, which consisted of data conversion from the former system Past Perfect to CollectiveAccess, setup on the public site, training, and data cleanup, was completed in the summer of 2020.

CollectiveAccess is an online, open source-based collections management software system available through the Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums (MALHM). Organizations using the CollectiveAccess system have the opportunity to share as much or as little of their collection online as they wish. The benefit of sharing the collection online is that it becomes more accessible to researchers and the public. Currently, there are 45 organizations from across the state using CollectiveAccess for their collections management.

LCHS currently has over 22,000 items from the museum collection cataloged on the system. As of now, we have shared over 6,800 objects on the public website. To view our shared collection online, visit http://www.mncollections.org and click on the Lyon County Historical Society. You can search the collection by typing in keywords such as a business name, town in Lyon County, school, person, sport, etc.

If you are searching for something that does not show up, feel free to reach out to us via email or phone. We have many items in our collection that are not yet accessible online or cataloged, but we can check to see if we have it in our collection. If you have objects, photographs, documents, etc. pertaining to Lyon County history that you would like to donate to LCHS, please feel free to reach out to us to see if we can accept it for the collection.

The photograph featured this week shows an item from our collection. The object id number is 2021.74.11. This system of numbers is applied to items donated to LCHS. For this object id number, the 2021 is the year the item was donated, the 74 is the assigned number to the donor, and the 11 refers to this being the 11th item in this collection donated. This two-piece ensemble was worn by Audrey (Aamodt) Hostetler in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was donated along with other articles of clothing by Audreys daughter in October 2021.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open year-round to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: http://www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.

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Powerhouse International Church has embarked on an ambitious project to build a 1, 000 seater auditorium at Kanjedza Forest in Blantyre.

The churchs founder and overseer Reverent Clement Nkhoma said in an interview on Wednesday that the auditorium will cater for Sunday School classes and administration offices.

Powerhouse International Church began its ministry in 2014, but does not have its own building, forcing its followers to congregate at Blantyre International Conference Centre (BICC) at Golden Peacock Hotel in Blantyre for their Sunday services.

With the help of God, we have managed to acquire land on which we are building the auditorium. Powerhouse International Church is set on a mission to win 2 000 souls before this year finishes and the church project is aimed at ensuring that the won souls are housed in a spacious temple of worship, said Nkhoma.

He said his church has already conducted four crusades as part of the mission to win the said number of lost souls this year.

We have done the first crusade in Naname where we witnessed over 475 souls saved, which was below our target of 500 souls each crusade. But we thank God for such a harvest of souls, he said.

Nkhoma has been in the ministry since 2004 when he was ordained in Living Waters Church by Prophet Chapo in 2006 when he was serving as a caretaker pastor for Bolton Living Waters Church in the United Kingdom.

He then started a campus fellowship in Cambridge when he was studying for his Masters Degree in Business Consulting.

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Powerhouse Church in 1, 000 capacity auditorium construction project ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) Seven months following a devastating fire, a Bloomington church has started the process of building a new permanent home.

Construction began this week on Victory Churchs new building after a January fire totaled the previous building. Executive pastor Jarrod Herald said after speaking with insurance, it was more cost-effective to tear down the old building and start over from scratch.

In January of this year, the church caught fire and it took multiple fire departments nearly nine hours to fully extinguish.

Herald said the church will once again be located at 18180 U.S. Highway 150.

We just felt like God said here on 18180, this is where God wants us to be and so we decided to take the whole building down, re-build and make it better; we were always told if you could do things differently what would you do? Well, were doing it now, Herald said.

Herald said tentatively, that the plan is to open the new building by April 2023.

Weve totally re-oriented our sanctuary, the steel building will actually be bright red and weve taken that time to re-do our logo and the new building will also have a great Victory kids wing and area for our youth ministry, Herald said.

Currently, Victory Church is holding its Sunday services at Cornerstone Christian Academy.

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Construction begins on new Victory Church | CIProud.com - CIProud.com

Churches are one of the largest landowners in the country. The Catholic Church is one of the largest private landowners in the world. According to a 2020 study from UC Berkeleys Terner Center for Housing Innovation, California faith institutions collectively own about 38,800 acres of undeveloped land. Almost half of that land is located in resource rich areas, where there is better access to schools, public transportation, grocery stores and economic opportunities.

The movement to take advantage of that land is known as YIGBY Yes in Gods Backyard. But its not been easy. Affordable housing is notoriously difficult to build in California, and without deep pockets or the experience of developers, many churches have tried and failed.

Jordan Court is one of the few church-led affordable housing developments successfully built in the Bay Area. The process started in 2014, when Rev. Phil Brochard and the All Souls Episcopal congregation were trying to decide what to do with an apartment building the church owned next door. The parish had used it as a makeshift office space, but it was becoming decrepit and underused.

At the same time, we had members of our congregation who were themselves starting to feel the housing crunch that was happening, said Brochard. We wanted to be part of strengthening the community in a different way and one that was going to provide space for people who are most vulnerable.

The church decided on an affordable housing development specifically for seniors with low incomes, to help serve the citys aging population. They also figured senior housing would be a pretty easy sell to neighbors.

But the projects road to completion was a long and tiresome one with all the usual speed bumps that face affordable housing developments: high construction costs, bureaucracy and neighbors saying "not in my backyard."

For some, they didnt want to see a bigger structure here we added a story to the building that was previously here, Brochard said. For some, it was just that they didnt want poor people living in their neighborhood and they felt like they or their families would be at more risk.

One neighbor appealed the project, causing All Souls to miss out on an opportunity for millions of dollars in funding.

But All Souls had their advantages, too. The project got some help from the state Legislature, with a new state law designed to spur housing construction. SB 35 was passed in 2017, and streamlines project approvals in cities that have failed to build enough housing to meet state-mandated requirements. If a project meets certain criteria and contains fewer than 150 units, local governments must greenlight them within 60 days. Jordan Court contained 34 units and met all the criteria.

Another thing going for All Souls: its size and financial stability. The church has many affluent congregants who volunteered their skills toward developing Jordan Court, including an architect who assisted in the design process and an attorney who helped sort through the legal red tape. The church could also afford to build affordable rather than market-rate housing, which would have earned a profit.

Were also in a position where we didnt need the income stream for us to be able to survive, Brochard said. Weve been a pretty stable congregation over the last 15 years or so. We felt we had enough stability that we could make this choice.

All Souls built Jordan Court in partnership with Satellite Affordable Housing Associates. Though SAHA has helped house 4,000 residents across the Bay Area, this is the first project it has completed on church property.

Weve had other glimpses and potential projects with congregations, but this is really the first successful one weve done, said SAHA CEO Susan Friedland.

Friedland has talked with parishes who wanted to build affordable housing for their congregants, but backed out after realizing theres no guarantee that the finished projects would have room for them.

Under fair housing laws, affordable housing projects must be open to anyone who qualifies.

Because we take government money we cant lease the building only to a certain group of people we have to open it up widely. Thats often a game changer for a congregation, said Friedland.

Another misconception is how financially lucrative an affordable housing project could be.

Some organizations see they have surplus land and they want to monetize it, said Friedland. But building affordable housing isnt always a great way to maximize profit. Its not a moneymaker.

Developing affordable housing takes a lot of time and resources, which can be daunting for new developers like churches. Since 2020, state Sen. Scott Wiener has been working on legislation that would make the approval process easier specifically for churches that want to develop affordable housing, but it has failed both times he has introduced it. Wiener plans to introduce a similar bill in December.

Pastor L.J. Jennings leads the Kingdom Builders Christian Fellowship in Oakland. Born and raised in the East Bay, Jennings has seen his neighbors and family members get pushed out of the area by the rising cost of living.

We talk about gentrification, but my word is displacement, Jennings said. When I look at who is being pushed out, its minority folks, its people of color. Its changing the demographics of our city, of our communities.

Before becoming a pastor, Jennings worked in residential and commercial real estate and decided to put his experience and skills to use. In 2010, a year after opening the Kingdom Builders Christian Fellowship, he built a sober-living facility on land the church owned. Seven years later, he opened a hundred-bed home for formerly incarcerated individuals looking to reenter society.

All of [the tenants in our facilities] are classified as homeless, said Jennings. We knew right away early on that we needed to address the homelessness crisis, so thats what weve been doing.

After learning the ins and outs of building subsidized housing, Jennings wanted to help other churches do the same. In 2019, he started the Kingdom Builders Project, a nonprofit with two goals: to help churches build affordable housing and to make the projects as financially sound as possible to help struggling churches stay afloat.

The Kingdom Builders Project has been working with churches across the East Bay on housing projects: four in Oakland and one in Hayward. All the churches are Black churches.

We know in the Black community that Blacks are being displaced in record numbers, Jennings said. So as a community, were really trying to stem the tide of Black displacement. Were fighting for our survival.

While building housing may align with a churchs mission to serve its community, its not always cost-effective. According to Jennings, this is because faith institutions arent familiar with the financing of housing developments and therefore dont know how to negotiate with savvy housing developers.

We have these situations where nonprofit housing developers are getting land from the church and the church doesnt benefit from it other than their name on the building, Jennings said.

For example, many affordable housing developers make money through a developer fee, a sum of money included in the total housing development costs. Jennings argues housing developers should share that fee with churches, especially if the church is involved in that development process and owns the highly valuable land.

There are other ways to access revenue streams, Jennings says, if only churches knew how to tap into them. Traditionally, an affordable housing developer would manage the apartment property or contract it out, but if church members learned how to manage the property, they could keep that revenue. Jennings envisions the church providing other services, too.

Whether its computer assistance, whether its after-school care, whatever it is its for the community and the residents, he said. We would help them develop their services that are going to be housed inside the development so that they can create additional revenue.

Jennings also wants to increase the odds that churches can house their own members who are at risk of displacement. Getting a unit in an affordable housing project usually happens by lottery, to make it a fair process. Jennings says that in the time it takes to build the housing, churches can work with their members to help them qualify.

Were working with them on their credit, were working with them on their budgeting, making sure theres job stability, Jennings said. Were working with them on all the areas so that when the application opens, our people are ready to apply.

The four housing projects in Oakland are in the early stages and havent started construction yet, but Jennings says they look promising. The project in Hayward, however, is running into roadblocks from the churchs neighbors and confusing county regulations.

The Blessings of Faith church, located a few blocks away from downtown Hayward, wants to build a 42-unit complex for seniors with low incomes in a small parking lot behind the church. Pastor Tally Knott grew up in Hayward, attended the church and witnessed the displacement of seniors and others in her community.

I was always around seniors, so my care for older people came about by just being around them, said Knott. This is my home, these are my people. I understand the community here and the needs of the people.

Since starting the development process, Knott says the church has gotten pushback from neighbors who fear the apartment building will be too large for the area. Others in surrounding homes fear it will bring crime and disorder to their quiet community.

We live in a community where people are comfortable and dont want change, but everyones going to become older one day, said Knott. I was even thinking about putting up signs that say Seniors Matter.

Despite the setbacks, Knott and Jennings are resolute in their goal to build affordable housing in their communities. Theres no guarantee that these projects will work out exactly as envisioned, but it makes sense that faith organizations like the Kingdom Builders Project are giving it a try. Churches and other faith institutions have provided shelter to their communities for centuries.

With the affordable housing crisis, there are no silver bullets, said Tia Hicks, program officer at the Bay Area chapter of the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). This is just one opportunity to really get at our regional affordable housing crisis.

Since 2019, LISC Bay Area has worked with 20 churches in the East Bay that wanted to develop housing on their property. One church is set to start construction on their property by the end of this year while others are selecting development partners and getting started on the approval process. Hicks says faith institutions are some of the best organizations to get involved in housing because they are usually entrenched in the communities they serve and understand the specific needs.

It enables communities to retain ownership over what gets built, she said. Especially if were prioritizing racial equity in our work, in supporting Black congregations, theres a lot of powerful synergy there.

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California Churches Want to Build Affordable Housing on Their Land, So Why Is It So Hard? - KQED

Next week construction will start on the new playground that has been years in the making.

BUFFALO, N.Y. On Monday, State Senator Sean Ryan and other local leaders held a groundbreaking for a playground in the Elmwood Village.

The space is located at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church where construction is beginning next week and should be fully installed.

The playground is set to include a playhouse, slide, accessible staircase, ground-level activities, and an obstacle course. It was designed by KOMPAN Playground.

Plans for the playground were originally created in 2019 but were delayed because of the pandemic and supply chain issues as a result.

"We are blessed to be able to donate this space for this great project. We feel it is an amazing step in the continued growth of this community. We feel that it will be a positive in this community," Jamie Owens the pastor at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church said.

The playground is funded by $135,000 made up of grant funding and donations, including $25,000 from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Legacy Funds administered by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

After facing some unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, we are excited to finally get this project to the finish line. When this playground is installed next week, families in the Elmwood Village will have a new, walkable community gathering place where kids can get some fresh air and exercise. A special thank you goes out to our community partners and donors, whose generosity made this project possible, Ryan said.

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Construction to begin at new Elmwood Village playground - WGRZ.com

Two temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced during the past year now have official names given by the First Presidency.

The second temple in Rexburg, Idaho, will be known as the Teton River Idaho Temple, while the temple announced for Birmingham, United Kingdom, will be called the Birmingham England Temple.

An announcement of the temple names was published Monday, Aug. 15, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

During the October 2021 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to build 13 new temples, including one identified for Rexburg North, Idaho. In the April 2022 general conference, President Nelsons list of 17 new temples included a temple for Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The name of the new Birmingham England Temple lines up with the two dedicated and operating temples in Great Britain the London England Temple and the Preston England Temple.

And the Teton River name for the second Rexburg temple helps alleviate possible confusion with the dedicated and operating Rexburg Idaho Temple.

Both temples are still in planning stages, without exterior renderings, site locations or groundbreaking plans announced.

The two are part of the 58 Latter-day Saint temples that have been announced and are being planned. With the 173 dedicated temples and 51 more under construction, the Church has 282 temples worldwide operating, under construction or renovation, or in planning and development.

Link:
First Presidency names 2 temples: Teton River Idaho and Birmingham England - Church News

KENSINGTON, Maryland Meg Foulger Pratts youth was filled with Sunday afternoon outings to survey the construction of the Washington D.C. Temple.

Her father, Sid Foulger, worked as the general contractor of the historic temple project and regularly brought his family to the site. They watched the temple in each phase of construction from excavation to completion.

We have been close to this temple for a long, long time, she said.

Pratt still remembers the day her father came home and announced that while digging the caissons the retaining structure of the temple the team hit bedrock.

He just thought it was so significant that this temple was on bedrock, she recalled. They hadnt anticipated that completely.

In retrospect, the day was also significant for Pratt who with her husband Brent Pratt has always seen the temple as the bedrock of her life.

The Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The temple, the Churchs 16th in operation and the first built in the Eastern United States, was dedicated in 1974.

In the year before the dedication, Brent Pratt joined the temple project overseeing the work on some of the finishing stages. He would later serve in the Washington D.C. Temple presidency and, for more than three decades, worked in the construction business in the area, overseeing massive development projects.

He said while the construction of the temple was not perfect, it was as close as possible. We strive to be perfect, he said. Its not perfect perfect. But it is as close as we can get.

Throughout the years, the Pratts have personally experienced the comfort, peace, knowledge and revelation that comes with temple worship.

The temple is a light in the nations capital city, Brent Pratt said.

It is a monument in a city of monuments, Meg Pratt added.

The Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The temple closed in 2018 to update mechanical and electrical systems, refresh finishes and furnishings, and improve the grounds. Brent Pratt, a member of the local temple rededication committee, has coordinated many of the logistics of the open house and rededication. Meg Pratt has worked with hosting.

After a four-and-a-half year renovation project and delays connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Russell M. Nelson will rededicate the Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday, Aug. 14.

We have waited for this for a long, long time, Meg Pratt said. This is a temple that we have loved for so many years. It thrills me to see it now, more beautiful than its ever been. I feel like everything has been refined and elevated.

Since the temples original dedication in 1974, millions of people have seen the prominent and commanding edifice from the Capital Beltway.

Motorists travel the Capital Beltway near the Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Excitement for the temples reopening began the day the temple closed in 2018, said Jeffrey Cook, who served on the local temple committee as the Awareness Committee chair.

Cooks parents served for more than 25 years as ordinance workers in the temple; his father was a temple sealer. He lost two of his brothers in separate automobile accidents in 1980 and 1982. To be involved in the reopening of the temple was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice of others to provide the temple blessings to all of Heavenly Fathers children, he said.

In the years the temple was closed, he said it was amazing to hear from faithful members who had similar stories as mine, he said. The members I have served with have been an eternal blessing to me.

He and his wife, Heidi, retired from their work to take part in the open house. They also used the time to prepare for a full-time mission. In one week, the couple will fly to Munich, Germany, to serve in the Alpine German Speaking Mission for the next 18 months.

Kent and Kathryn Colton served as president and temple matron of the Washington D.C. Temple prior to its closing for renovations in March 2018. Since then, they have overseen the work of the temple open house and rededication committee.

First moving to Washington, D.C., in 1974 so Kent Colton could work as a White House fellow, the couple attended the original open house and dedication of the temple. They too have witnessed the temples bedrock impact on the area.

Washington, D.C., is a very intense community, with all the vital organs of national and international government, Kathryn Colton said. Many of our patrons that come here are involved in positions that are very stressful, she said. And as they would come to the temple, it was their refuge, really a place to find peace amid all the turmoil of the world that they were aware of and involved in.

They knew the temple had taken its place as a monument in the city when radio personalities began using it as a reference point in announcing the traffic, she said. Now it is simply everyones temple.

The Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington, Maryland, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Mount Vernon Virginia Stake President Keith Davey said he has been excited and humbled that in anticipation of the temples rededication, there has been a personal rededication to making and keeping covenants, receiving ordinances, and temple service. Patrons take their holiness into the temple, where it is expanded and they leave to make their communities better places.

The temple is a light on the hill, a blessing to the area, he said. The temple brings us closer to God, closer to mankind and develops an anchor for us all that will impact society at large not just the members.

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Why, for Latter-day Saints, the Washington D.C. Temple is the bedrock of the community - Church News

The Catholic faithful in Angola have a deep love of the Blessed Virgin Mary and profound devotion to her, ACN has reported, adding that the Diocese of Mbanza Congo that is situated in what the foundation refers to as a very impoverished region in the Northwest of the country, still has no shrine.

The Angolan Diocese was the very place in sub-Saharan Africa that witnessed the first ever Christian baptisms and where the first Cathedral was built in 1595, the ACN August 10 report indicates.

The foundation stone for a Diocesan shrine to Our Lady of Victories in the village of Bungo that is part of the Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Kikudo was laid in 2019, ACN has reported.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the already existing desperate economic situation in Angola, the construction of the Shrine came to a halt, ACN has reported, adding that the situations in the country tore up their careful financial planning, and the building work had to be suspended indefinitely.

As for the Catholic faithful, already living in poverty before, they were now quite simply unable to help the Church anymore, ACN has reported.

The charity foundation is appealing for financial support towards the construction of the Shrine, saying, We are proposing a contribution of 21,000 to support this project, which we believe will inspire renewed faith, hope, and love in many people. Will you help us?

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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Catholic Charity Rallying for Support to Fund Construction of Marian Shrine in Angola - ACI Africa