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The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the schedule for the open house and dedication of the Harare Zimbabwe Temple. According to the announcement, a media day will take place on Monday, January 19, 2026. Invited guests are scheduled to tour the temple on Tuesday, January 20, and Wednesday, January 21, 2026. The public open house will be held from Thursday, January 22 through Saturday, February 7, 2026, with Sundays excluded.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is set to dedicate the temple on Sunday, March 1, 2026. The dedicatory session will be broadcast to all congregations within the Harare Zimbabwe Temple district.
The temple was first announced by then-Church President Thomas S. Monson during the April 2016 general conference. Groundbreaking for this project took place on December 12, 2020.
In historical context, Elder James E. Faust dedicated Zimbabwe for missionary work in 1991. The country’s first stake was organized in Harare in 1999 with Edward Dube as stake president; Dube now serves on the Presidency of the Seventy.
Since 1985, members in Zimbabwe have traveled about 24 hours by bus to worship at the Johannesburg South Africa Temple due to lack of a local temple facility.
Once completed and dedicated, the Harare Zimbabwe Temple will serve more than 46,000 Latter-day Saints across over one hundred congregations in Zimbabwe.
Latter-day Saints attend temples for worship and ordinances that include making promises with God and uniting families through sacred ceremonies.
