The BCRC Blog

After undergoing a major renovation during the pandemic shutdown, the Washington DC Mormon Temple, which you've all seen towering over the Outer Loop of the Beltway in Maryland, is reeopening. But before it reopens, it will be open for public visitation for the first time in about 50 years. Before the public tours, reporters and interfaith groups are being extended invitation only tours. A BCRC group was invited for a tour Thursday April 21. Rabbi Amy, Sonja Benson, Muriel Gardner, Carol Currier, Stacy Kafka, David Karas and Seth and Jackie Leventhal were on the tour. The tour was very enlightening about the practices of the Mormon religion and some of the commonalities that all faith groups share.  Here is how the temple was described by WTOP News: 

"If you’re not Mormon, but you’ve been in other cathedrals, it could be jarring.

'The one thing I was surprised by, there’s not a big room like you would see in a church,' said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was also there for the first tour.

The temple is primarily filled with smaller rooms, which each have their own purpose. There aren’t the marble floors and high ceilings generally associated with cathedrals, either: The rooms and hallways are filled with plush carpeting and furniture, all aimed at absorbing sound and making things quieter."