'Solemn covenants'
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Following is an excerpt from the prayer rededicating the Anchorage Alaska Temple given by President Gordon B. Hinckley on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2004. The complete text can be found on the Church News web site, at www.ldschurchnews.com.
Five years ago we met in these sacred precincts to dedicate to Thee and to Thy Beloved Son, our Redeemer, this, the Anchorage Alaska Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since that time, a great and wondrous work has here gone forward. Thousands of ordinances in behalf of the living and the dead have been performed within these walls. Husbands and wives, families and children, have been sealed together for all eternity. The living have here entered into solemn covenants before Thee, and the prison doors have been opened, freeing those in bondage to move forward on the way of eternal life and exaltation.
To accommodate an increase in the work, and to facilitate its progress, it has become necessary to renovate and to add to this sacred structure so extensively as to require a rededication of the enlarged facility.
And so, acting in the authority of the priesthood in us vested, and in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, we dedicate and consecrate the new additions and rededicate the renovated original structure with all features and appurtenances pertaining thereto. We consecrate the entire temple unto Thee and unto Thy Son. Wilt Thou accept of that which is accomplished and smile upon it as the gift of Thy thankful people.
Touch those of this temple district with Thy Holy Spirit, and stir within them a desire to use this beautiful facility in the accomplishment of Thy divine will. May they find great joy in coming here. May it be a haven of peace from the cares and stress of the world, a refuge from the hurried pace of their lives. As they here serve, may they be lifted in spirit, and may there come into their vision something of the divine light that is of Thy nature.
