A Gathering Place: Russian Week at the Stockholm Sweden Temple

Authors

John C. Thomas

Keywords

Mormon studies, temple, Sweden, Russia, Baltic states

Abstract

Temples are the great gathering places of Mormonism. As such, they cater in varying degrees to the diversity of an increasingly global Church membership. From its inception, the Stockholm Sweden Temple was designed to transcend the linguistic, cultural, and socio-economic differences that might otherwise undermine the temple's higher purposes. Dedicated in 1985, that temple was therefore well suited to play a vital role in the early development of the Church in Russia and the Baltic states. During the 1990s, many Saints from the post-Soviet states traveled together for a week's stay at the Stockholm temple to be "endowed with power from on high" (D&C 38:32), then returned to build up the Church in their homelands. "Russian week," as it came to be called, was held several times each year. Participation in the event exemplified a distinctive blend of faith and concerted effort, triumph and travail, reminiscent of Mormonism's nineteenth-century gathering.

Recommended Citation

Thomas, John C. (2000) "A Gathering Place: Russian Week at the Stockholm Sweden Temple," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 39: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol39/iss1/5