The Cambridge congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its meeting house with a public Open Day and a visit from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Whilst there has been an LDS presence in the city for over 100 years it wasn’t until 1965 that a chapel to house the congregation was completed, after 3 years of construction, in Cherry Hinton Road. Building missionaries and members were heavily involved in the fundraising and erection of the building, donating many hours of service. Construction took longer than expected after a very bad winter in 1963 when heavy snowfall caused delays.
The Mayor, Councillor Gerri Bird and the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Robert Dryden, both of whom are local to the Cherry Hinton area and remember watching the meeting house being built, were shown around the building and the Family History Centre with great interest.
Displays of the construction process, historic documents and other aspects of church life including missionary work and Mormon Helping Hands volunteering were presented. The Mayor was happy to join in with the children’s activities that had been provided, including writing her name in Greek on playdough.
Later in the evening the celebrations continued with a buffet, dancing to a live band and a special video presentation sent from Elder David Baxter of the First Quorum of the Seventy, who is a past Ipswich Church leader. Doris Clarke, one of the few original members in attendance when the Chapel was built and opened, cut the celebration cake.