New Mormon temple will be first built for nearly 30 years
A NEW Mormon temple will be constructed in Sutton Coldfield – the first to be built in Britain for almost 30 years.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has confirmed it plans to build a new Birmingham temple at its site in Penns Lane, next to the Ramada Hotel.
The temple will replace the site’s mission home – which sits next to a church – and be all white with a tall white spire some 314ft high.
It will be the third in England, with the first London temple in Newchapel, near Lingfield, south of the M25 dedicated in 1958.
The church’s spokesman, elder Martin Turvey, said: “Although we announced the plan for a temple in Birmingham, it was only in December or January that we announced the specific location, and last week we issued an image. We have had a building on that site for 60 years. The church has been building temples at quite a significant rate to make them more accessible for members.
“We have ordinary churches where people go each Sunday to worship.
“And we have temples where specific ordinances take place. You can get married in a church and have a marriage ceremony ‘til death us do part’.
“When a couple go to a temple their marriage can be sealed for eternity. Special ordinances are sealed in temples.”
The Sutton site has a church and another building that was built as a mission home where the mission leader would live.
By the early 1980s that building was converted to a church. Mr Turvey
and his wife, who is from Sutton Coldfield, were married there.
The site is bordered by the Ramada Hotel and an old people’s home, with homes on the opposite side of the road.
Mr Turvey said: “Anybody who sees our temples will know they are always aesthetically beautiful. The grounds are always immaculately maintained. Because we already have a building there I don’t think there will be a huge impact on the amount of traffic going in or out, when construction is completed.
“I would be very surprised if residents noticed an increase.
“The anticipation is it will take two to three years to build.”
Plans have yet to be submitted to Birmingham City Council, but it is hoped planning approval will be granted and work will start this year.