Envisioning Temples that are more Hospitable, Interactive, and Inclusive

Finding Unexpected Inspiration at my Local Oratory

On Canadian Thanksgiving Day, my family walked to the largest church building in Canada, St. Joseph’s Oratory. My brother-in-law was visiting from Utah and we were taking a break from a day of cooking and lounging before we sat down to eat.

It was one of the first wintry days of the year with rain and chilly winds. Instead of enjoying the Oratory’s lookout and walking into the woods as we planned, we decided to take refuge inside the church. 

Inside the building were hundreds of visitors. They were eating in the café, visiting relics, viewing the creche exhibit, lighting candles in the grotto on behalf of loved ones, praying in the basilica chapel, and attending services in the smaller crypt chapel.

There were festive smells of bread, turkey, and pastries coming from the café. This and the nativity sets in the gift shop evoked the spirit of Christmas in the middle of October for me. Noticing several families caring for young babies made me think of the newborn Christ. As I looked at a snow globe featuring Mary with baby Jesus while peaceful music played, I realized that something different was happening in me: Being in this Jesus-focused space reconnected me with a sense of wonder at His birth in a way I hadn’t felt for years. 

We entered the basilica chapel. While the exterior of the building has a Renaissance revival style, the interior is decorated in art deco and is quite modern. The immense domed space felt like an appropriate reflection of transcendent and spiritual things, like an acknowledgement that God’s love encompasses all of humanity and creation.

I noticed details I never had before. Low on the walls are quotes to ponder carved beautifully into stone. Stained glass depicts scenes of Joseph, Mary’s husband, caring for the child Jesus. I noticed semi-private spaces behind the pews where to ponder life-size relief sculptures depicting the stations of the cross. I noticed the beauty of mosaics depicting scenes from the life of Christ on the backdrop of the sanctuary. I felt renewed trust in the power of simple spiritual practices to bring inner peace and hope, whether memorizing a quote, lighting a candle, or gazing at art depicting the face of God.

Any cynicism toward other Christian traditions was absent. I am gradually experiencing more moments of moving from a perplexity stage of faith to a more peaceful harmony stage. In moments of harmony like I experienced that day, I feel like all of humanity’s longings, doubts, traditions, and missteps belong and will lead to wisdom, and that God’s love gives us more than enough grace to include everyone. In the words of Julian of Norwich, it seems to me at these times that: “All shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be exceeding well.” In these moments, I also realize I don’t need to belong to other faiths to claim their spaces as sacred places to reconnect with the mysteries of God. 

Although the Catholic Church has greatly decreased in membership and activity here in Quebec since the 1950’s, the Oratory continues to expand its services and activities for patrons. They are building a new visitors’ center, renovating their museum and outdoor spaces, and just built a carillon bell tower. I admire their efforts to make this free center more inviting, interactive, and accommodating to visitors who come from all over the globe. It succeeds at providing welcoming, hospitable, and interesting spaces for families (including small children), groups of pilgrims from around the globe, and whoever seeks refuge off the street.

My visit to St. Joseph’s led me to think about my concern that Latter-day Saint temples are not oriented toward outsiders, members’ or families’ needs for connection. If we’re going to build hundreds of more temples as Pres. Nelson has planned with our tithing money, I’d like to see these temples help more than just fully participating Latter Day-saints and our global dead. I dream of temples that are founded on fraternity and connectedness rather than patriarchy and exclusivity, and that integrate and celebrates both feminine and masculine hospitality, creativity, and spirituality. Temples where you could possibly bring small children and be supported if need be, where a teenager could (again) look forward to soft-serve and a fun chat at the end of a visit, or where a stranger could find refuge from the rain and have a spiritual experience just as I did at St. Joseph’s.

I dream of a temple that is more community-oriented, with spaces and opportunities for connection

Cafeterias were one of the more enjoyable parts of going to temples for many people, especially teens and young adults, but now the Church has gotten rid of them all. Patrons miss having a space to connect over food. Personally, I miss the smells of mash potatoes, pies, and gravy that once greeted me at temples not unlike coming home to my grandmother’s house. Cafeterias made the temples that had them more hospitable, more family and community-oriented and in my mind more feminine than they are now.

One of the current goals behind building many more temples at once seems to be to make temples for all members within a reasonable driving distance. I get the value of this, but it also means we’re losing traditions of traveling to the temple as communities, which only makes going to the temple an increasingly solitary experience. Reinstating cafeterias or spaces like them where it is appropriate to socialize normally, eat and connect, would be a positive move.

Pres. Nelson’s stripping away of many Latter-day Saint traditions. programs, funds, and priorities besides temple worship is leaving many individuals and households feeling disconnected from their community roots and less motivated to stay engaged in the Church. If we want people to be motivated to go, we need to foster a more rewarding community life outside the mostly solitary experience inside the walls of the temple. We can’t let the temple become all we do or focus on.

And while the temple is supposed to be about family connections, visiting itself isn’t very accommodating or focused on either nuclear or extended families visiting. What if the temple became oriented toward families of all sizes and age ranges visiting and having interactive experiences together?

I long for temples that are culturally vibrant and connected to our past

Church administrators have ceased live endowment sessions and gutted the Salt Lake Temple of historical artwork and architecture to modernize and standardize the rituals inside. I don’t approve of these moves. I would enjoy temples that are less sterile and white and more visibly historic and eclectic. Seeing layers of history in places of worship can play an important role in connecting us to things that are greater than ourselves and our heritage.

Administrators have also recently gotten rid of some of the historic language and concepts in the endowment. I’m on board with changing language that is sexist, unethical, or oppressive, but I’m skeptical about other changes being the best direction. I took a university course about “the art of memory,” including how communities remember that made the point that across religious cultures, ritual language is usually carefully preserved throughout time. The goal is to keep it intact to preserve the past and to preserve origin stories, etc. I’m concerned that our leaders are not prioritizing this enough. In other traditions, there are prayers that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. Our religion isn’t even two hundred years old yet, yet we have had frequent changes to ritual language recently. For some members, frequent adjustments and regular dramatic makeovers water down the impact of sacred ritual language and make the temple a disorienting moving target rather than a spiritual home to return to.

I need temples that are more more interactive and engaging

Recently, temple rituals, especially the endowment, have become more of a passive, motionless, and isolated experience. The patrons do less and less, the presentation explains more and more explicitly what temple should mean to us. I miss practicing steps ahead of time during the endowment. I miss moving and standing up. I miss viewing a film rather than still images. The films helped me engage the content and made the temple more conducive for being in touch with my emotions, noticing symbolism, making creative connections, and tapping into personal imagination. And now that the temple tells me transparently about how and why diverse things tie back to Jesus, my mind is less interested and engaged throughout. I actually thought more about Jesus during past versions of the endowment. I’m disappointed that streamlined efficiency seems to be currently treated as the top priority. And I get the idea that slides make accommodating multiple languages and temples much easier, but I find the cost outweighs the benefit. I’m pretty discontent with much of the direction we’ve been moving toward recently.

I would prefer it if we used our bodies more in the temple, and if the presented content were more spiritually, artistically and emotionally engaging. I want interaction and real opportunities for my creative and spiritual capacities to be engaged rather than what turns out to be a passive, sedentary taking in of content with pre-determined meanings. I would like a full-embodied and mentally engaged kind of spirituality to take the front seat instead of convenience.

The Springtide Research Institute recommends that clergy who lead youth should invite the youth to help create religious community rituals to produce better results helping young people develop spiritual sensibilities. I wish I were granted space to contribute more to the content and meanings of the rituals I experience in temples. Being more active contributors there through ritualized words and actions would be more beneficial to patrons’ spiritual development and well-being.

We could also expand temple services to include interior spaces apart from the formal rituals to make the temple more of a place to just go connect with God. The temple could include semi-private spaces to pray, ponder, read, and write, with more diverse seating and lighting options. It would be nice to be welcomed to the temple even if you don’t have time or interest in doing an ordinance. I’d like there to be more freedom, within reason, to move around without supervision, much like at the oratory, where I can explore and experience all kinds of spaces meant for different kinds of worship and practices.

I dream of a temple with multiple Adams and Eves from many racial and ethnic backgrounds, speaking many languages

The temple presentations have never been inclusive to our ethnically and culturally diverse global church membership. Adam and Eve and God consistently being white seems to communicate some kind of racial priority or hierarchy that makes many ill-at-ease. This needs to change.

I need to see representations of the divine feminine in the temple

In the Oratory, there is a beautiful, cave-like, dimly-lit grotto in which half the walls are actually the rocky surface of Mount Royal, which often has water trickling down it. In this space, there is a beautiful sculpture of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It feels like a sacred nature and divine womanhood-focused space and I love it. I desire ways to connect with Heavenly Mother and to see Her visually in the temple, through both art and in the presentation.

I envision temples with spaces that are welcoming and open to the public.

St Joseph’s Oratory’s website explains, “Welcoming is at the heart of its mission…Everyone finds a space for reflection and an unconditional welcome.” We could create inclusive spaces in temples where all receive an unconditional welcome to spend time in the space and feel and ponder the love of God. This week I learned on Mormonland about how the secrecy and exclusivity of LDS temples can create negative feelings toward them and lead to unpleasant rumors. It’s normal across cultures for people want to understand what’s going on and be invited and included in sacred spaces. Temples could easily have spaces inside that provide something comparable to the hospitality and a religious literacy-oriented approach of Temple Square. Welcome centers, multi-faith prayer and meditation rooms, mini museums, music opportunities, free spiritual support services, art galleries–the possibilities are exciting.

I dream of changes to temple entrance requirements that would make the temple more welcoming and inclusive

So many more people could be welcomed and included if temple interview questions were kept simple and practice-based (i.e. are you following the 10 commandments?) rather than invasive or potentially shaming. The questions should exclude what we intellectually assent to and whether we sustain/submit to the clerical authority of human leaders. In the temple, the goal is to orient and commit ourselves to God, not human administrators. And, despite how chronically we get this wrong at Church, cognitive belief is not the same thing as faith. Lived practice and relational stances (e.g. trust, love, and willingness) are aligned with faith in God and following Jesus much more than any intellectual assent to ideologies. In many other religions, to enter a sacred space, what really counts is are you willing to have good manners and follow the rules; whether you want to be there is the crucial issue. Treating cognitive belief in Church dogmas as a prerequisite for worthiness/entrance is keeping many people away from temples who might otherwise benefit and want to be involved. This really needs to change!

I dream of temples where members need not pay tithing to participate in ordinances

Temple entrance requirements need reforms, especially during our current era of increasing income disparity and poverty. Ten percent of one’s income is absolutely not an equal offering among members when we compare the wealthy with the poor and disadvantaged. Even in many middle and lower middle income households today, paying tithing makes a big difference to one’s quality of life, negatively impacting flexibility and much needed emergency funds. Some families, for example, have to make choices between whether their children will participate in community activities that are much needed for their physical and mental health or to pay tithing (and accessing these activities for children is all the more needed in an era when neither the Church nor society at large are providing adequate community supports for kids). Some couples must choose between paying for things like marriage therapy, medical treatments, or other family essentials or tithing.

On the blog, one woman who identified herself as Frustrated recently shared: “Daycare and health costs have eaten into our savings such that we can no longer pay any [tithing] to anyone. Our mortgage is less than most people’s rent, so it’s not like we can downsize there, either. We are working on our spending habits re: groceries and other necessities…I’m trying to save up for a much-needed roof replacement. I will not be lectured to about giving to the Lord’s church when the Lord’s church has enough to last til the 2nd Coming (whenever that may be) and then some. What little money I can save I spend helping give Christmas presents to those in worse financial straits than us.”

When individuals make choices to prioritize meeting important needs over paying tithing, adults are then excluded from participating in important rituals and rites of passage. Dads are informed by their bishoprics they won’t be allowed to baptize, confirm, or ordain their own kids. Parents can’t benefit from time in the temple or bring there teenagers there.

Promises of blessings in return for faithful tithing verge on magical thinking and manipulation. And as Frustrated points out, the Church’s wealth seems to be evidence to many members that it doesn’t need to take money from the poor or from anyone on a tight budget whose well-being will be negatively impacted rather than blessed by the sacrifices of tithing. These are the people the Church should be giving the most to instead of taking from. Are we being asked to buy our salvation? How much is this requirement just a way for the institution to ensure itself a steady financial intake rather than something that is pleasing to God? I believe Jesus would overturn many of the metaphorical tables of our administrator’s temple entrance requirements.

I Dream of the Church Giving Back to Members in More in Ways than Just More Temples

This Fall, Church funds were withdrawn and cut off in my stake. Suddenly, we had a $0 budget for the rest of the year, and no one seems to know why. My ward has a large population of humble asylum seekers and immigrants from all over the world who offer a lot to the Church. It seems to me it is an unwritten rule that if you belong to a Christian church, that church will provide a Christmas meal that will be a free gift. Yet our ward has no hope of a Christmas celebration unless we require the members to bring the equivalent of what their entire family would eat for Christmas dinner to the party themselves. My recent Christmas party experiences with the Church are something straight out of a Dickensian dystopia. Last year, we didn’t have enough food at the dinner (due, I assume from what I know, to budget cuts and just never having enough money) and many went home hungry. Our party this year is, by necessity, a potluck with anxious leaders spending time contacting everyone trying to get them to sign up for as much food as they can spare. It seems to me that the church isn’t giving much of anything substantial back to the members of my ward, many of whom are paying tithing at great cost. Where is the reciprocity? To be frank, the deprivation of funds to my ward and stake upsets me immensely and I consider it unethical. Inspiration to build more temples, however legitimate, is no excuse for Scrooge-like, penny-pinching actions in the face of the social needs, monetary offerings, and free labor contributions of members. If the celestial kingdom has no resources for Christmas parties, barbecues, craft nights, or talents shows, I’m not interested. If all we do together is have sterile, white, quiet spaces with chandeliers, count me out! The current administrations’ fixation on investing in temples becomes neglectful and oppressive rather than a blessing whenever they fail to show hospitality to ordinary members and other guests. In preparation for Jesus’s coming, we need to respond to his commission to feed his sheep rather than ignore human needs and strip religion down to temple worship.

Final Thoughts

I dream of temples that are more inclusive and welcoming to both our own members and to the world, where all pilgrims could benefit from coming to in their search for connection with one another and divinity. I think this kind of temple would do a better job strengthening our struggling LDS communities, helping us retain more of our young people, and strengthening people outside the Church and on its margins. How we do temples and Church has changed many times before and it will change again. I’m holding out hope that things could be much better–more hospitable, more inclusive, more interactive, and better at meeting our needs and desires. In the meantime, I’m going to keep trying to learn from other places of worship, and reclaiming them as my own sacred spaces.