Tabernacle (LDS Church)

For other meanings of the word "tabernacle," see Tabernacle (disambiguation).
The Salt Lake Tabernacle, home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ca. 1870

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a tabernacle is a multipurpose religious building, used for church services and conferences, and as community centers. Tabernacles were typically built as endeavors of multiple congregations (termed wards or branches), usually at the stake level. They differ from meetinghouses and temples in design, scale, and purpose.[1]

There were 79 total tabernacles built during the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century, usually within areas of the Mormon Corridor that had predominantly Latter-day Saint populations.[2] The largest such tabernacle is in Salt Lake City on Temple Square. The last tabernacle commissioned by the church was the Ogden Stake Tabernacle, built in the 1950s.

While some tabernacles are still used for a few ecclesiastical and community cultural activities, stake centers are now normally used in their place. Many tabernacles have been demolished, sold, or renovated and repurposed into temples (e.g. Vernal Utah Temple, Provo Tabernacle).

Prior to 2000, the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square was used twice a year for the church's general conferences. In April 2000, the conferences moved one block north to the LDS Conference Center.

References

  1. ↑ "Fire Damages Historic Provo Tabernacle", mormonnewsroom.org (LDS Church), 17 December 2010
  2. ↑ McArthur, A. J., & Wrobel, D. (2005). The buildings at the center: Latter-Day Saint tabernacles in the Mormon culture region. Thesis (M.A.)—University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2005.

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