The groundbreaking ceremony for the Antananarivo Madagascar Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held last Saturday. Presiding over the event was Elder Denelson Silva, First Counselor in the Africa South Area Presidency. He was accompanied by Elder Dwayne J. van Heerden, an Area Seventy, and other local leaders and dignitaries.
“Thirty-five years ago, in 1990, the idea of a temple in Madagascar was merely a dream,” Elder Silva said. “But now, on this historic day, that dream has become a reality.”
This temple will be the first in Madagascar, the home of more than 15,000 Latter-day Saints across over 40 congregations. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ began there when the Madagascar Antananarivo Mission was formed in 1998. The Antananarivo Madagascar Stake was organized in 2000.
To Latter-day Saints, the temple is considered a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship. These differ from the Church’s meetinghouses. While all are welcome and invited to worship at Sunday services and attend weekday activities in the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels), the temple is for faithful members of the Church who worthily hold a temple recommend. The purpose of temples is for members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies, such as uniting families forever in marriages, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.
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