Announcement that stake temple chapel meetings are now cancelled

29 January 2017

Bishops,

During a training meeting yesterday morning with the temple president we were instructed that the Brethren do not favor chapel meetings in the temple. In fact, the Portland Temple is one of the few temples in the church where chapel meetings are still held. 

There are several reasons why chapel meetings are discouraged, principally that “the temple is for ordinances, not meetings.” The Brethren would prefer members come and use even that half hour of time to perform initiatory or sealing ordinances if they only have a short time.

With a desire to follow this counsel, we have cancelled our Stake Temple Chapel meetings scheduled for February 28 and October 3, 2017.

Rather than have a stake chapel meeting associated with stake conference, we ask members, who hold temple recommends, to use the week leading up to stake conference—Feb 21-25 and Oct 10-14—to attend the temple at a time of their choosing as a way of preparing to be taught by the Lord at our stake conferences scheduled for Feb 25-26 and Oct 14-15.

We are confident the Lord will honor our temple service during the week before stake conference with an added measure of His spirit at our conference.

Will you please share this with your ward leadership and help publicize to all ward members that the stake chapel meetings scheduled in 2017 have been cancelled and replaced by a concerted effort for all members to attend the temple during the week leading up to stake conference?

Gratefully,

The Stake Presidency