8 Year Replacement

8 Year Angel Replacement

In 2011 the Angel Moroni Statue was slated to be replaced at the Accra Ghana Temple. The statue, original to the temple, had been placed atop the spire in 2003 and was beginning to show signs of wear. Scaffolding was erected around the spire, and a makeshift crane was made out of pipe lashed to the scaffolding. It is not clear from accounts why a crane was not used at that time, but there must have been some difficulty in obtaining one, or a crane would have been sent for when the pipe-built crane bent too much to fully remove the existing statue. When it became apparent the statue could not be extracted, it was replaced fully back into its socket.^[1]Jethroandmic. Our Mission to Africa. 30 July 2011, ourmissiontoafrica.blogspot.com.

The replacement statue was returned back to its crate, and stored for later use. It was stored, in fact, on top of the temple. Historic satellite imagery available through the Google Earth software clearly show the crate in place on the south west end of the roof.

The decision was made to finally replace the statue during the two-week maintenance period scheduled January 22–February 5, 2018.  The statue was removed from its crate, then as is common with most statue placements, the statue was inspected and repaired. A new coat of Gold leaf was placed on the replacement statue and burnished for an even shine.

On Friday February 2^nd of 2018, a 300-ton crane arrived from Tema, Ghana. The crane was used to remove the original, aged statue from the Accra Ghana Temple and raise the new Angel Moroni in place atop the edifice. From planned replacement, to actual accomplishment took 7 years.^[2]“A New Angel for Ghana,” Newsroom, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2 February 2018,