Latter-day Saints prepare for long-awaited opening, public open house
TALISE, Kola Ridge – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints completed construction of a meetinghouse that will serve nearly 780 members who reside in Honiara.
“We have waited years for a proper meetinghouse in Honiara,” says Fiona Sauseru, a local self –reliance missionary who was a pioneer in the Church here in the Honiara Branch—one of three congregations that will use the facility.
“This will be a blessing to hundreds of our members who will no longer sit in a small packed and hot meetinghouse for Sunday worship and weekly activities”
To celebrate the opening, local Latter-day Saints are preparing an open house for the Government leaders & Officials, other church leaders, Business executives, leaders of non-Government Organizations, the Media and Community leaders, slated for Friday, 13 November with tours of the meeting house from 3 p.m to 6 p.m. Members of the public are invited to the open house on Saturday, 14 November starting at 10 am to 12 midday. People of all ages, faiths and backgrounds are welcome.
“We’re excited to be able to show it to our leaders, friends and neighbors and let them see how it will be used. “Says Dickson Koke, first counselor in the Honiara Solomon Islands District of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the presiding authority of the Church in Solomon Islands. “It’s a beautiful building that seems to be designed just for this part of Honiara.
The meetinghouse is constructed with cement with most of the building materials imported from Australia and New Zealand complementing the surrounding landscape. It consists of a chapel that seats 200 people, a medium hall for cultural activities etc, 6 classrooms and three offices, a kitchen and three toilet facilities one is specially designed for people with disabilities
During the past decades the 15-million member Church constructed a lot of Church own designed meetinghouses in many of the 170 countries and territories where it has a presence. These meetinghouses differ from Latter-day Saints temples, where marriages and other sacred ordinances are performed, and uniting families for eternity.
