Q & A -- Waiting for a blessing to come their way

It will be innovative. It will be beautiful. It will be convenient.

But most of all, say Orange County members of the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints, it will be holy.

“The temple is the place that the work of Jesus Christ is most clearly

manifested,” said Weatherford Clayton, the leader of the Newport Beach

branch of the church.

A temple planned for Newport Beach is tentatively set for a 2003

opening. It will sit next to the church’s worship place on a seven-acre

site at Prairie and Bonita Canyon roads.

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

28,500-square-foot 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.

The temple also is where much of the church’s teaching takes place,

and the inaccessibility of a temple hampers that education as well as the

performance of their most sacred ceremonies.

Two members of the local church, Clayton and Joseph I. Bentley, sat

down with Pilot Senior City Editor S.J. Cahn to discuss the plans for the

temple and what it means for the area’s Mormons.

Why is there a need for the temple?

Clayton: When we travel to attend the temple, we’re traveling 70 miles

to San Diego or over 50 miles into L.A. and there’s often heavy traffic.

It’s five days a week, starting as early as 5:30 in the morning. You

attend when it’s convenient to your schedule.

Bentley: It translates what’s now a four- to five-hour experience into

what can be less than two hours, only if you take out the travel.

Everything we do in the temple is ongoing -- baptisms, marriages. Any

time a person wants to go, they can go to either one of the temples [in

Los Angeles and San Diego]. [The planned temple] is accessible. We think

the beauty of the temple is that members can go back and review what

they’ve learned. It’s very close to the center of our church

geographically, between the ocean and the [San Diego Freeway]. Not only

that, but it’s a beautiful site. We were impressed with it.

Clayton: There are stories of people traveling to temple and spending

a year’s earnings to go there and seal their marriages.

Bentley: The president of the church was concerned about getting more

temples to far away places, and it came to him that you could have a

smaller temple, one-tenth the size of L.A., with all the essential

functions.

Clayton: This is the point that all the saints look to. The more that

the temples are available, they will be able to receive all the

blessings.

Bentley: [Church leaders] resolved to have a temple within a day’s

drive of everybody in the world.

What would you say to Newport Beach residents who are worried about

the temple adding to traffic?

Bentley: First of all, no more than 100 people can get in it at once.

If large groups want to go, they wouldn’t come here. They would go to San

Diego or L.A. The building here is for small groups or individuals who

want to go at their convenience. Secondly, it’s dispersed during the day.

It’s not like a chapel, when everybody comes at once. Now, parking -- we

have over 400 spaces there now.

Clayton: It will be closed Sunday, so that wouldn’t change anything.

This will be Tuesday through Saturday, so it shouldn’t really affect much

of anything. I think there’s a real desire that the community feel a real

pride that this is their temple because it’s something for everyone to

enjoy. So to have something that’s out of place wouldn’t make sense.

Bentley: Traffic is always a concern for the people of Newport Beach.

We hope to show them this is a perfect solution -- the ways to our temple

are easy and accessible.

How long have you been waiting for a temple?

Clayton: The decision for the site isn’t ours. It’s done by the head

of the church. We hoped. But because they are a blessing that are given

from the head of the church, it wasn’t something we were actively working

on. We were blessed with having L.A. and San Diego. Having the Newport

Beach temple is such a great gift.

What’s the next step?

Bentley: First comes all the permits. There are many requirements. The

city at this point is the only agency with jurisdiction. We ran it by the

city recently and they said it was interesting but not very complicated.

It may take as little as a year to build. So it may be early 2003 [that

it opens].