More details revealed about proposed Newport Beach temple

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- It won’t be ready until 2003 at the earliest and city

officials still need to approve it.

But if all goes well, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints will soon celebrate the dedication of Orange County’s

first Mormon temple.

On Thursday, church officials announced that the temple will sit next

to an existing meeting house for Mormons on a 7-acre lot at the

intersection of Prairie and Bonita Canyon roads.

Mormon leaders had already announced their plans to bring their most

sacred kind of building to Newport Beach in April.

At 17,000 square feet, the proposed temple will be smaller than the

28,500-square-foot worship place, or stake center. It will be used to

unite couples and families in sealing ceremonies, as well as introducing

non-Mormon ancestors to the church. Mormons believe the latter service is

essential to give the deceased the chance of an afterlife.

Because Mormons may only perform these rituals at temples, Orange

County’s 50,000 church members have had to travel to temples in Los

Angeles or San Diego.The new temple will eliminate the need to travel for

several hours, said Joseph L. Bentley, a spokesman for the church’s

Newport Beach stake, which has about 3,300 members.

“It takes care of the road, for that matter,” he said, adding that he

now drives to Los Angeles about once a month to offer his services to the

church.

The Newport Beach temple won’t be as large as San Diego’s

80,000-square-foot building and forms part of the church’s plan to make

temples more accessible to its members, Bentley said.

Former City Manager Bob Wynn, who is a church member, said the

proposed temple’s size should put nearby residents at ease.

“If it were a big one like San Diego or L.A. -- as a citizen of this

community, I would probably have some questions about that,” Wynn said.

“But since it’s a small temple, I don’t think that it’s going to be a

burden on the community.”

Wynn added that church officials will prepare traffic studies and give

residents a chance to comment on the project before taking it to the

city’s Planning Commission in the fall.

The idea to build smaller temples came from Gordon B. Hinckley, the

church’s president and prophet, who was inspired after visiting a remote

area in Mexico in 1998, Bentley said.

“On the way back to the airport, [Hinckley] began to sketch the size

of a building that would just have the essential functions,” Bentley

said, adding that the Newport Beach temple won’t include an eating area

or a visitors center.

As a result of Hinckley’s revelation, the number of Mormon temples

around the world has more than doubled, Bentley said. The church has 106

temples, with 19 more announced or under construction -- including the

one proposed for Newport Beach.

Hinckley, who is the church’s leader, personally decides where new

temples are built, Bentley said, adding that the costs for construction

are not revealed.

The temple will be paid for with tithes from members, Bentley said.

“We’ve helped to build temples in other places,” he said. “Now our

tithes and those of others are going to build a temple here.”

Non-Mormons will get a chance to visit the temple after it is

completed. But once the temple is dedicated, only faithful members of the

church, who follow Mormon teachings, such as spousal fidelity and

abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, may enter it, Bentley

said.