The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking date for the Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple. The site location and an artistic rendering for the temple have also been released.
Groundbreaking services for the Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple will be held on Saturday, August 23, 2025. Elder Thierry K. Mutombo, Africa Central Area President, will preside at the event.
This house of the Lord will be built on a 1.5-acre site located at Avenue de la Republique (T-Ville), ex rue de Lamonthe 103 et 109, Bacongo, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. Plans call for a single-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet, as well as patron housing and arrival facilities. This will be the city’s first temple.
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| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple during the April 2022 general conference.
“I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple,” he said then. “Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”
The Brazzaville Republic of the Congo Temple is the first house of the Lord announced, under construction or in operation in the Republic of the Congo. Nearby, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a temple in Kinshasa was dedicated in 2019, and a temple in Lubumbashi is currently under construction. The Kananga Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple and the Mbuji-Mayi Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple have previously been announced.
In the 1980s, Latter-day Saints who had been baptized abroad began returning to the Republic of the Congo and gathered in Brazzaville to organize the Church in the country. By the time then-Elder Russell M. Nelson and Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited in 1992 to dedicate the country for the preaching of the gospel, the first district had already been organized.
Today, the country is home to nearly 14,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 40 congregations.
Latter-day Saints consider each temple a house of the Lord and the most sacred place of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies such as marriages, which unite families forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.