The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says Victoria is one of 15 sites worldwide where it plans to build a temple. The Victoria temple will be the second in B.C. and 11th in Canada.
The announcement was made at the conclusion of the church’s annual general conference in Salt Lake City.
The design, location and construction timeline have yet to be determined.
Church members on Vancouver Island now gather in meetinghouses or chapels, and those who want to worship in a temple have to travel to the Lower Mainland.
The Vancouver temple, which sits on a 10-acre site in Langley, was dedicated in 2010.
The first Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Canada was completed in Cardston, Alta. in 1923. Other Canadian temples are in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, with a temple for Lethbridge announced last year.
Missionaries of the church, also known as Mormons, came to Vancouver Island in 1903, with the first Sunday School established in 1918. A self-sustaining congregation was created in Victoria in 1946.
The church has two “stakes” — the equivalent of a diocese — on Vancouver Island, with the Greater Victoria Stake serving about 2,000 members in seven congregation units in the region.
The Victoria Stake covers southern Vancouver Island, from Sooke to Sidney, the Gulf Islands and up to the top of the Malahat.
