The pictures above and below are of the amazing LDS (Mormon) Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. I spent an amazing 15-day trip with Mormon friends in Salt Lake City in 2008, and enjoyed travelling round South Utah and Arizona with them. The photo above was taken of the Salt Lake City Temple from an LDS restaurant high up in a building opposite it. Needless to say, I had a decent camera with me here, not my mobile.
In contrast, the picture below is of the same Temple from the front. On a bright sunny day, you'll see the just (eternally) married Mormon couples posing for their wedding pictures here.
I'm not a Mormon, but the LDS religion fascinates me, especially the Temple rituals: Baptism of the Dead; Eternal Marriage; and the Endowment Ceremony (non-Mormons aren't allowed inside LDS Temples, so, of course, I've never seen any of these rituals first hand).
Right, the crux of my story here regards an amazing coincidence in Salt Lake City. One day, while walking away from the city centre towards the university, me and my wife noticed that we'd passed by a few Orthodox churches, and decided to go inside one. After a few minutes taking shots of the iconography in an upstairs chapel, I got chatting to a lady outside, and after a minute or two, she suddenly asked me: "Where are you from?", and I just answered "From near Manchester in England". But the lady was extremely curious, so I eventually said "Bury", and her face lit up. As it turned out, she'd been born in Fairfield Hospital, and had lived in Walshaw, Bury until she was 14, before emigrating to the US with her parents.
The lady from my story is on the right of the picture above, and as it turned out, she was an Orthodox convert, and the wife of the priest, so she'd really had quite a destiny. And the lady on the left, well, at the time, she was training to become Orthodox, so it was an interesting story all round.
But the story above wasn't the only 'coincidence' during this trip, as on the LDS Tabernacle door, near the Temple, I met a retired American Mormon couple who'd been over to Bury retracing the steps of their ancestors. Finally, I also met a retired lawyer and his wife at an LDS Sunday Sacrament Meeting in Salt Lake City who'd gone over to the US from Burnley (just up the road from Bury) in their early 20s. Yes, it was definitely one of those trips, I loved it all.
What a small world Pat. Incredible photographs and incredible buildings. Didn't quite a lot of Mormons originate from Lancashire? Did they sail on the Mayflower?
ReplyDeleteJust going off memory from things I've read, Dave, I think that between the late 1830s and 1880s, as many as 60,000-80,000 people from Lancashire left from Liverpool Docks, where there are said to be memorials, to live as Mormons in the New World.
ReplyDeleteMany of them were recruited from the Preston and Chorley area which is the centre of British Mormonism to this day (e.g. having the incredible Temple at Chorley).
Yeah I have passed the Chorley temple many times Pat on the motorway. Sixty to eighty thousand is a really large amount of people isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's why I view Mormonism as an Anglo-American religion.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that the 3rd Mormon President/Prophet Leader (after Joseph Smith and Brigham Young), John Taylor, was an Englishman?
There seems to big English influence on the new American culture Pat. Is that why they speak English? I didn't know about John Taylor. Will look him up on Google when I have left here.
ReplyDeleteDo you know much about the French Huguenots' Pat? I ask you because some of them settled here in Ireland and there is a Huguenot cemetery somewhere in Cork city.
The Amish fascinate me the most. Would love to go to Pennsylvania.
The Huguenots have a small chapel inside Canterbury Cathedral, Dave.
ReplyDeleteLots of people say that they like the Amish, but I suspect that they might change their minds if they lived with them for a few weeks.
I think the Amish were idealised and immortalised in the film 'Witness', which is still one of my all-time favourite films.
Didn't know they had a small chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, Pat? I have been there, so I could have seen it.
ReplyDeleteSome say the same about Heaven Pat. All that hymn singing and supping cups of tea? I am joking. The Amish are the most peaceful people in the world and they are Agrarian minded.
Yeah it's a great film. Better than Harrison Ford's Temple of Doom films. Although he did once find the Ark of the Covenant, didn't he? Keeping with a religious theme.
I'll be back tomorrow. See you Pat.
The Amish are agrarian-minded, true, but not always the most peaceful people in the world, as it has been known for one clan to attack another (there was a recent court case in the US).
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to stick with any theme on here, Dave, it's just good that you visit.
I would still like to see them though. I love their collective spirit and love of the land and the way they work with horses instead of using fossil fuelled machinery. Think I was born a hundred years too late.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you seem to be big on the ecological thing, Dave.
ReplyDeleteI just think God made a beautiful place called Earth. Why do we want to spoil it for future generations? Think I have been listening to Jethro Tull's Heavy Horses and Song From The Woods a lot lately. Have you read the lyrics to 'Jack in the green' Pat? To paraphrase:
ReplyDelete"Well I don't know I saw some grass grow through the pavement the other day."
What a fantastic ecological band.
Just think that the ecology movement/fad is a poor replacement for religion, as it lacks ontological depth and deeper soul-searching experience.
ReplyDeleteI also think that to a certain degree, this notion of 'looking after future generations' may've been deliberately designed to replace the higher aspiration of seeking the after life. This isn't just my idea, a few sociologists of religion have discussed this.
Of course, don't treat this too seriously, Dave, as it's all only speculation.
I've seen how you and your family live on your farm, and it's wonderful, Dave. Thus, my scepticism is only aimed towards the wider ecology fad, where New Age types are pretending to be philosophers with cures for problems that are just too sociologically complex to solve.
You're probably right Pat. Especially with the'New Age' religions.
ReplyDeleteGod himself won't send down his angels to repair the hole in the Ozone layer but while we are alive I think we should be concerned. Most people (Christian or not) don't seem to be that concerned about the environment.
I know you Pat and I admire you for your religious beliefs and your politeness... Unfortunately for me I have gone through a St John of the cross 'Dark night of the soul' experience and none of the religious brands of Christianity on offer where I live, do anything for me.
We can't solve the problems Pat but it's good to talk. For me the end of the world will be when people stop communicating.
Fantastic day for the England cricket team Pat.
Always great to communicate with you.
You're right, Dave, where you live, you're probably restricted to a few colourless brands. In this respect, I'm lucky living in a big city where a lot of Christian diversity is not far away.
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