Most homeowners know renovations can be tricky, unpredictable, often stressful. For the 90,000 Canadians who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the renovation of their 5,000-square-metre Toronto Temple is all of these things, but also an act of faith.
“Yeah, we do believe in growth,” said Toronto Elder David Lefrance, as he and his wife Lori prepared to lead a dozen curious visitors in a rare guided tour of the building. The temple is located an hour north of Toronto in Brampton, Ont.
Under normal circumstances, non-members are not permitted to enter these temples. Only those who possess a “Temple Recommend” — a kind of membership card — are admitted. But following the completion of a 14-month renovation, the Toronto Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is hosting an open house from Feb. 13 to March 8.
First opened in 1990, the newly renovated temple will be rededicated March 23, and will thereafter be closed to the public.
The Toronto renovations are part of a global boom in temple construction by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Around the world, there are 100 new temples under construction or slated for construction. This expansion will bring the global total of the church’s temples to 367 in the next few years. The building boom is occurring under the direction of Russell Nelson, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.
Nelson wants to bring the temples closer to the people, especially in its mission territories outside of the United States, Kim Woodbury, a media relations manager from the church’s global headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, told Canadian Affairs.
“This is why we are doing all within our power, under the direction of the Lord, to make temple blessings more accessible to members of the Church,” Nelson said in a 2024 press release. Temple blessings refer to a variety of ceremonies including baptisms, confirmations, weddings and sealing ceremonies.
“We believe the president of the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] is a prophet. He speaks to God,” said Woodbury. “This is what he is directing us to do, to build temples.”
For adherents, temples are a special category of building, different from chapels or meeting houses where church members usually gather. An inscription at the entrance to each temple reads, “The House of the Lord, Holiness to the Lord.”
The church currently has eight temples in Canada, operating in Calgary, Cardston, Alta., Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Regina, Vancouver and Winnipeg. New temples are planned for Lethbridge, Alta. and Victoria, B.C.
These temples are considered to be the most sacred places on earth, linked spiritually to the Jerusalem Temple of Solomon. The temples are valued for their role in connecting families through generations, said Sandra Pallin, communications director for the Canadian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We, like every church organization, are projecting growth,” said Pallin. But she noted that Canada is a tough field to plough, with a third of Canadians reporting no religious affiliation in the 2021 census.
However, as immigrants arrive, looking for a sense of belonging, many are attracted to The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, Pallin said. “Most of our baptisms are coming from the immigrant base,” she said, noting they have added members who are recent immigrants from Ghana, Nigeria and Central and South America.
“There has been an influx in baptisms over the past year and the building of temples and churches in general reflects that growth,” Pallin later added in an email.
The Toronto Temple is not new, but it now serves more members in a smaller area than 30 years ago when it was the only temple between Manitoba and St. John’s, N.L.
Pallin’s ward in Toronto’s west end now boasts members born in 70 different countries, she said. A ward is a local congregation in the church that typically serves between 150 and 500 members.
Pallin says Canadian members have to fight against the idea that The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints is a basically American religion, since it was founded in western New York in 1830 by Joseph Smith and centred in Salt Lake City. Services in Ontario are conducted in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Tagalog, she said.
“Canada has actually been a very significant location for outreach in the early days of the church,” said Helen Warner, a Brampton-based historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. “It looks American, but a lot of our roots are connected to Canada.”
In the 1830s, the village of Churchville, Ont., which is now a part of Brampton, became a major centre for the organization. This ended when, in 1847, about half the Churchville population left for Utah, joining an exodus of church members fleeing hostility and persecution in other U.S. states.
But church missionaries returned to Ontario in the early 1900s. By 1960 there were enough chapels for an Ontario “stake,” which is the next highest level of organization that may be created if there are at least five ward-sized branches in adjacent areas.
Many of the renovated features on display in the Toronto Temple — from the massive marble baptistry supported by 12 carved bulls to the white clothes worn during ceremonies — are close copies of the architecture and furnishings of the central temple in Salt Lake City. But, in a Canadian twist, the Toronto Temple also displays a reproduction of a Tom Thomson painting, alongside more typical paintings of biblical scenes.
To tour the Toronto Temple, the church recommends visitors make a reservation at TorontoTemple.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. The church is hosting an open house from Feb. 13 to March 8, every day except Sundays.
Editor’s note: A prior version of this article referred to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints as Mormons. The church no longer uses this terminology.
