The Rise and Fall of a Tradition: The End of ‘Every Temple Gets a Moroni’

The End of ‘Every Temple Gets a Moroni’

The Dedication of the Paris France Temple in 2017 seems to mark the very early beginning of a shift away from the tradition of putting a statue on every single temple.

As of Publishing time, the history of statue use looks like this (Temples without a released render not included in numbers) :

Range	Years	Temples	% All Temples	Without Moroni	% Without
1877-1982	105	20	8.47%	15	75%
1983-2016	33	135	57.2%	2	2.2%
2017-2025	8	81	34.32%	58	71.6%
Totals	146	236	100%	75	31.8%

Since 2017, more temples have been announced than in the first 105 years of temple construction.  And more than half of those announced temples have no statue. If you were to compare official renders released by year for the last 10 years, and things become even more clear:

Year	Renders Released	With Statue	Percent With
2011	7	7	100%
2012	2	2	100%
2013	2	2	100%
2014	2	1	50%
2015	7	6	86%
2016	2	2	100%
2017	3	2	67%
2018	3	2	67%
2019	12	7	58%
2020	22	2	9%
2021	24	0	0%
2022	3	0	0%

Of extra interest, during a city council meeting in Orem Utah, one of the cities where Church membership is highest in the world. An early elevation design for the temple was shown. One city Council member noted the absence of the statue and indicated that he, for one, would prefer the design included one. No other Council members objected to the statement, effectively clearing the way for a statue to be included should the Church choose to do so.^[1]Genelle Pugmire “Orem City Council approves LDS Temple zone change,” Daily Herald, 15 April 2020 However, when the official render was released some months later, like most renders being released at that time, the Orem Temple had no statue.^[2]“Groundbreaking Date Announced for Orem Utah Temple,” Newsroom, 24 June 2020

James Rich, Senior Project Manager for the Church for the Lindon Temple project, was asked in Lindon City Council Meeting why there was no angel statue atop the Lindon Utah Temple:

“It’s an interesting question, as you know, traditionally we have put angels on many of the Church’s temples over…, over many decades, and the trend recently has been to shy away from that. Most of the new temples now are not being designed with an Angel Moroni. Some of the bigger…, we have one bigger plan than this it’s the 4/80 that is going into Saratoga and, Layton, and down in St. George, those are, some of the very last ones with Moroni’s, and most of the new ones, or ALL of the new ones currently are not, are not… still….”

“It’s a change in focus, a shift in focus by Church leaders a little bit to…, to…, get a different focus.” ^[3]James Rich, City Council Meeting, Lindon City, 21 June 2021.

While not an official statement, It’s the closest thing we have so far. It does indicate that this is a planned, and determined move away from the statues, and that new plans across the board are not using the statue any longer.

This in no wise spells a complete and total end of the practice, but to drop from 98% of all temples in a 34-year period having statues, to 79% over a TWO-YEAR PERIOD does seem to suggest a shift in design.

While we can, in the future, hope to see Angel Statue continue to be occasionally placed on Temples, the rate, and percentage of those temples to receive statues can be expected to go down. Especially as smaller temples are placed in poorer and poorer countries.

Statue Removed After Dedication

Provo Utah

During the Last Session of General Conference on 3 October 2021, President Nelson made the announcement of 13 new temples throughout the world. He finished his announcement by giving notice that “reconstruction” of the Provo Utah Temple would begin once the then under progress Orem Utah Temple was completed.^[7]Nelson, Russell M. “Make Time for the Lord.” Liahona, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 3 October 2021.

On 24 November 2021 an official render was released showing the exterior of the new temple. While the footprint seems similar, the overall mass of the temple has increased, in both width and height. Noticeably absent from the temple is the Angel Moroni Statue that was added in 2003.^[8]“See Renderings for the Provo and Smithfield Temples.” Newsroom, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 24 November 2021,

As with Hong Kong, there is no official reason, and there may be more than one cause for the change.

Guesses at policy changes aside, with the exception of temples like Paris France, Lima Peru Los Olivos, and the newly rededicated Hong Kong China Temple, each of which have no spire, it is conceivable that someday these new angel-less temples could join the list of retroactively added statues. In fact, construction photos of the angel-less Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple show that the interior of the spire has a steel tube inside, which appears to be the proper size for the post on an Angel Moroni Statue to slot into. ^[9]“Temple News & Updates | Week of 8 October 2017.” LDS Daily, 13 Oct. 2017.

This tube was used to attach the finial, and could someday be used to attach a statue should a future president follow President Hinckley’s thinking.

The Last Statue

On 24 November 2022 the last Angel Moroni statue was placed atop the Salta Argentina Temple. Despite the fact that at that time there were 33 temples then under construction that had yet to have their spires completed, and an additional 10 temples with renders released but yet awaiting construction, none of those 43 temples were slated to receive a statue.
Additionally, there were another 61 temples announced, but with no render released. It was highly unlikely at that point that any of those would receive a statue either.

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