Perhaps the biggest surprise for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints watching the faith’s October General Conference was that their new leader, Dallin H. Oaks, did not announce any new temples.
It was a big change from the 93-year-old Oaks’ immediate predecessor, Russell M. Nelson, who made it a hallmark of his presidency to reveal where in the global church these new sacred structures would be built, sometimes to cheers and squeals of delight from the faithful.
“He loved to announce new temples at the conclusion of each General Conference,” Oaks said in his address at the fall gathering, “and we all rejoiced with him.”
However, due to the “large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction,” said Oaks, who was named faith’s 18th prophet-president on Oct. 14, “it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
He also noted that church leaders will move forward with “when and where to announce the construction of new temples.”
On Sunday, that “when and where” was realized for one temple.
At an area Christmas devotional in Portland, Maine, general authority Seventy Allen D. Haynie, the church’s Northeast Area president, announced the first new temple of the Oaks presidency, would be built there.
It will be Maine’s first temple.
“The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later,” according to a letter from the governing First Presidency that Haynie read. “This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and thank God for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants, and power that can only be found in the House of the Lord.”
Haynie explained that “in a recent meeting of the First Presidency, a decision was made that... the announcement of the construction of a new temple should be made on location” by an apostle or a member of an area presidency.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) At a Christmas devotional held for Latter-day Saints and friends of the Portland Maine Stake on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, general authority Seventy Allen D. Haynie read an announcement from the First Presidency of a temple to be built in Portland, Maine.
He added that, “such an announcement by a member of an area presidency has never occurred before. Tonight, will be the first.”
It also marks the first temple to be announced outside of General Conference since central Utah’s Ephraim Temple was named in a special broadcast from Manti.
During Nelson’s nearly eight-year tenure, the 101-year-old leader (who died Sept. 27) announced the construction of 200 temples (more than half of the faith’s 383 existing or planned temples).
With the planned Maine temple, six U.S. states (Delaware, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia) now lack either an existing Latter-day Saint temple or a planned one.
And for Oaks to equal Nelson’s record run of new temple announcements, it’s one down, 199 to go.