By Lani Dame
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in eastern Germany and surrounding countries will now be able to participate more fully in the blessings of the temple.
The Freiberg Germany Temple will be rededicated on September 7, 2002 by President Gordon B. Hinckley. The open house began August 17 and will run until August 31.
'We look forward to the rededication of this house of the Lord and the blessing it will be to the Saints,' said President Hinckley in a news release.
The temple was originally dedicated in June of 1985; but because of an increase in membership in the area, the temple needed to be expanded.
The remodeling of the temple began in July 2001 and ended in July 2002. The expansion increased the temple to almost twice the original size.
When the temple was first built, it was only needed to accommodate members in the German Democratic Republic because the German government would not allow its citizens to travel outside of the country.
The Freiberg Temple is the only temple built and dedicated in a communist-controlled country.
The temple will now accommodate members in the eastern portion of Germany and the Eastern European nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania.
Another new addition to the temple is the statue of Angel Moroni. When the temple was first dedicated, the statue was not part of the plan.
'Of course there were reasons we could not originally put the statue on top of the temple, but now it has been added and shines wonderfully up there,' said Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Quorum of the Seventy in a news release.
The statue of Angel Moroni was placed on the temple tower in a ceremony on December 2001.
The Freiberg Temple was the first temple in Germany and the 33rd operating temple of the Church.
On September 8, 2002, the Church of Jesus Christ will dedicate its 114th temple in Hague, Netherlands.