The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking ceremony for the Vancouver Washington Temple.
Groundbreaking services for this new house of the Lord will be held on Saturday, August 23, 2025. Elder Mark A. Bragg, General Authority Seventy, will preside at the event.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
As previously announced, this temple will be built on a 15.11-acre site located at the northwest corner of the SE 20th Street and SE Bybee Road intersection, Vancouver (Camas), Washington. Plans call for a multistory temple of approximately 43,000 square feet. This will be the city’s first house of the Lord.
Church President Russell M. Nelson announced the Vancouver Washington Temple during the October 2023 general conference.
He said then: “The ordinances and covenants of the temple are of eternal significance. We continue to build more temples to make these sacred possibilities become a reality in each of your lives.”
The Vancouver Washington Temple will be the sixth temple in Washington state. Other temples that are announced, under construction or in operation in Washington are found in Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma.
Many Church helped with Washington’s railroad construction for the Northern Pacific Oregon Short Line in the 1880s. In 1930, Church hip in the state totaled 1,900 across eight congregations, with chapels located in Everett, Spokane, Seattle and Olympia. Many more flocked to the state with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in the early 1940s.
Today, Washington is home to more than 282,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 470 congregations.
The ceremonies conducted inside each temple teach about the purpose of life and unite families, both past and present. of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints promise to keep God’s commandments, His work, live the higher law that Christ taught while on earth, remain chaste and dedicate their lives to building the Church of Christ.