Thousands celebrate Mormon temple dedication in Carmel

CARMEL – As James Wheatley stood outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Carmel on Sunday morning, he knew that he was witnessing something special.

An Avon resident in the process of becoming a member of the church, Wheatley was among hundreds who attended one of three dedication ceremonies for the recently constructed temple.

As he stood shoulder to shoulder with his new church family, Wheatley was full of pride. He felt that his being there for that moment was meant to be.

“To me, it’s kind of like a message from God,” he said. “To have something big like this happen as soon as you start something ... this isn’t something that everybody gets to attend. It feels good.

“It’s just a very exciting day for everyone here who is part of the Mormon faith.”

The 34,000-square-foot temple at 116th Street and Spring Mill Road is the 148th temple of the church in the world and the first to open in Indiana. Other temples near Indianapolis are in Chicago; Louisville, Ky.; and Columbus, Ohio.

The temple is the most sacred space of the Mormon faith, used for ordinances for Mormon families who wish to become closer to God. Rooms within host baptisms, weddings, meditation and sealings, a ceremony in which a husband, wife and sometimes children commit to one another. Church services are not held in the temple.

Dedications performed throughout the day Sunday were preceded by a Cornerstone Ceremony, a tradition in which senior church leaders place mortar around a brick bearing the year a temple is erected to officially complete its construction.

“In the early temples, there would be a large stone that would be the cornerstone, and in fact they would climb on top of that stone to do the dedicatory prayer,” church elder Kent Richards explained before the ceremony. “We are going to put in the mortar symbolically as a representation of the conclusion of the construction of the temple, remembering that it is symbolic of Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone of all that we do.”

Although only a few hundred were able to attend the dedication ceremonies in person, church spokesman Rick Hightower said thousands watched it in churches across the state. There are about 45,000 members statewide, Hightower said.

The public had the rare opportunity to view the inside of the temple during an open house that ran from July 17 to Aug. 8. Hightower said the open house attracted more than 90,000 visitors. Upon completion of the dedication, only Mormons are allowed to enter the temple.

For Julia Von Bargen, of Carmel, the completion of the temple is an important moment for her and her family. She waited for Sunday’s ceremonies to begin flanked by her two children, Madison and Krister.

“Now we don’t have to travel down to Louisville, but more importantly, we can come more often now,” she said. “When I grew up in the West, we would only go once a year. My youth group would rent a bus, and we would drive nine hours one way to the temple.

“As I got older, there was one that was six hours away, so we went a couple times a year. As they build more and more temples, you get to go more often, and that’s the big thing. I know we won’t take it for granted.”

Call Star reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack .