By Janene Pack
janene@newsroom.byu.edu
After some delay, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened the Boston Temple this week without an Angel Moroni.
The Church had tentative plans to open the Boston Temple in June, but the plans changed due to construction delays.
The LDS Church has met some opposition in building the Boston Temple because of the Angel Moroni.
According to Massachusetts zoning by-laws for the town of Belmont, the highest a building can be is 60 feet, with a steeple no higher than 12 feet without permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
According to Kenneth L. Harvey, attorney and spokesperson for the LDS Church, the Church had original plans to build the Boston Temple with six steeples, with the Angel Moroni steeple reaching 156 feet. The Church appealed the zoning law and with much opposition received permission to construct the temple with the Angel Moroni.
Despite this decision, President Gordon B. Hinckley decided to limit the Boston Temple to six steeples with the Angel Moroni steeple only reaching 139 feet.
According to Harvey, one of the motivations of the Church was to appease some of the Belmont opposition but to no avail. Six residents of Belmont decided to bring a lawsuit against the LDS Church concerning the height of the steeple with the Angel Moroni.
Arleen Martin, Jenny Altshuler and Margaret Boyajian of Crestview Rd. and Joyce Jones of Ledgewood Place brought lawsuits against the Church to prohibit the Angel Moroni construction.
'We have a lot of support from government officials, neighbors and other clergyman,' Harvey said. 'It is only these six residents who have shown any opposition towards the height of the Boston Temple.'
Two of the other residents have since dropped their lawsuits.
The Angel Moroni is still being constructed and will be placed upon the steeple once legal issues are resolved. The Angel Moroni is a reproduction of the renowned Boston-area sculptor Cyrus Dallin's Angel Moroni built for the Salt Lake City Temple. Once the Angel Moroni is constructed, it will be stored in the Cyrus Dallin Museum in Arlington, Mass.
The Boston Temple is the 100th temple to be dedicated for The LDS Church. Public tours for the Boston temple began Aug. 29 and will continue through Sept. 5, 2000. Tours will resume on Sept. 9 and continue through Sept. 23. No tours will be offered on Sept. 3, Sept. 10 and for half a day on Sept. 17.