President James E. Faust knew it was not easy for many members of the Murray Utah South Stake to replace the building where they - and three generations of their ancestors - attended Church.

The second counselor in the First Presidency reminded them, before he dedicated a new meetinghouse located on the corner of Vine Street and 5600 South in Murray, that other Church members have left sacred buildings.The old Vine Street chapel, built in 1856 to house one of the original 19 wards in Salt Lake City, had no overflow area, a dangerous roof and termites when the decision was made to replace it. In November 1992 the building was demolished. Construction on the present building commenced on Sept. 7, 1994, and was completed Sept. 5 of this year.

Before dedicating the new building on Oct. 8, President Faust called it - one of some 13,000 buildings in the Church - an indication of the "wonder of it all, the majesty of it all and the greatness of it all."

Elder Alexander B. Morrison, a member of the Seventy and president of the Utah North area; Lyle J. Martinsen, former Murray Utah South Stake president; and Richard C. Howe and William S. Erekson, both members of the stake, also spoke at the dedication.

President Faust said the roots of the people, "noble men and women" who spent their lives attending the old church, go back three generations to the handcart pioneers.

"They are people of great strength, great faith, great humility, whose very core lies in their testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and in this holy work," he declared. "I consider myself blessed to have worshiped in the old building here."

While serving as stake president in the late 1950s, President Faust attended meetings in the chapel. The building originally was a small, rectangular structure facing Vine Street. In 1870, a north wing was added, and then in 1944, a south wing was constructed. In 1969, the building was again enlarged to include a cultural hall.

President Faust and other Church members talked about attending roadshows, ward dinners, variety shows and other Church activities on the corner of Vine Street, which has rarely been used for anything besides religious purposes.

"While we all rejoice in all that took place in that wonderful old building, we rejoice in all the wonderful things that will take place in this building in years to come," President Faust said.

So ward members would not forget the old building, a Heritage Wall - displaying adobe bricks, hand-hewn beams and square wooden nails from the original structure and a picture of Christ before Pilate, painted by an early Church member - was built in the new building. A park will also be dedicated outside the new building, where the original granery used by early Church members still stands.

Elder Morrison called the ground on which the new building was constructed a sacred spot "hallowed and consecrated by the lives of those who have gone before."

"They were ordinary men and women, plain spoken, hard working, but made noble because they shared a vision," he explained, "a vision of a different world, a world where injustice and oppression, poverty and ignorance would be dispelled and a world where men and women would be brothers and sisters."

He said the early pioneers, including the ones from Mississippi who settled the Cottonwood area under the direction of Apostle Amasa M. Lyman, "came here across the oceans and the plains and prairies to these mountain valleys to find, to form, to build the city of God."

"They wore out their lives in the pursuit of that dream and they blessed us by their example," Elder Morrison continued. "We must never, if we value the future, forget the past. We must always keep sacred and never forget the memories of those who gave so much that we might sit here tonight in peace and prosperity."