Manti Temple: World Room

With the recent focus on the Manti Temple and the efforts to preserve its murals and progressive form, I wanted to do a post that focused more heavily on the mural in the world room. I have a post on the rest of the temple, but this mural tends to receive the most focus out of all the murals in the temple, because it is so striking. While I cover them briefly, the most detail can be found in this BYU Studies' Article from which most of the pictures are taken.

In the endowment ceremony, the world room represents the world in which we now live--the world into which Adam and Eve were cast out, full of imperfection and sorrow. Most other world room murals show the world in a fallen state without any humans--animals fighting and desolate landscapes. (Two exceptions are the Los Angeles Temple, which shows Adam and Eve entering the lone and dreary world, and the Idaho Falls Temple, which shows pioneers). Minerva Teichert used a different concept, instead showing how humans have interacted in this fallen world. Her mural ends up being a history of mankind, showing the contrast between those who strive to connect with God and those who do not. Minerva said, "The world has no significance other than people, and that’s what it was created for . . . that’s the story of the world room, it is a ‘people room.'"

Here is the view of the world room as patrons enter from the back. The front of the room is the east wall. The creation and garden rooms are significantly smaller than this room, and as patrons come up the staircase from the garden room into the world room, the effect is breathtaking.

Minerva's mural is basically a history of mankind, beginning on the back (west) wall and moving toward the east.

On the east wall, the Tower of Babel is under construction, one of the earliest stories given in the Bible. From here, just as man was scattered after the tower was destroyed, the story of mankind splits. The south wall (on the left side) shows the history of Israel; the north wall (on the right side, clearly visible above) shows the history of the gentiles.

Here is the south wall, which shows the history of Israel. 

There are four separate stories here. First, we see Abraham, Sarai, and Lot entering Canaan. This is symbolic of the Abrahamic covenant and the beginning of Israel.

Next, we see Joseph being sold into Egypt by his brothers. 

 

Last on the wall, we Moses confronting the people of Israel who are worshiping a golden calf. Finally, we see a the Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, awaiting their journey to America. Minerva connected the Pilgrims to Israel: "Israel is embarking to the West for the New World."

On the north wall, Minerva depicted the Gentiles--from the Orient to Europe. 

There are 3 groups of people in this pageant--those on animals, those walking, and then those in the foreground, representing the poor, oppressed, and afflicted of this world.

There is a window at the northwest corner of the room which goes directly into the temple's Holy of Holies. Beneath this window, Minerva shows Esau selling a slave.

Next comes the Orient section, showing several people from the far east, bearing symbols of their respective religions.

In the final section of the wall, we see crusaders proceeding in a procession, followed by Christopher Columbus on a ship.

In the foreground are the suffering and oppressed, while the religious and proud pass them by. This includes a blind woman, a father with his homeless family, and a mother with her lame son. Below these figures are some small painted banners with words that are now barley legible. One labels a group "poverty"; another labels them "the least of these." Underneath Columbus is a family driven to emigrate; underneath them, a banner reads "To Earth's End."

Both of these groups--Israel and Gentile--converge at North America, depicted on the west wall, the front of the room. The fact that America is the destination and the gathering place is symbolized by the Native American in the center.

From the south wall comes a Pilgrim seeking religious freedom; from the north wall comes a trader seeking wealth. They represent the different reasons people came here. A Native American stands between the two, already having claimed America as his home. Behind these three contrasting figures stands Zion, brightly lit, high near the ceiling, representative of the ultimate designs of God and destination of mankind. A temple stands in the city. Minerva clarified: "We have not had in mind any city exactly. It could be Salt Lake, Logan, Provo, Bear Lake, Manti, but it is the place where the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands should begin to roll forth until it should cover the whole earth."

Zion is the ultimate destination of the entire populations depicted in the mural; the murals in the story ultimately are about the journey of mankind toward Zion and a higher plane, just as the endowment is about the story of us progressing back toward the presence of God.

While I love the other murals in the temple (the creation room mural is the oldest existing temple mural still in use), this one receives a lot of attention for good reason. It is a unique depiction of the fallen world that opens up insights into the stories of the endowment ceremony. While I am very glad that the Church has promised to preserve the mural and put it on display, removing the mural from its function--highlighting the progress of mankind, as taught in the endowment--it loses some of its value. The form of the mural is less valuable without its function. My hope is that the Church will be willing to keep the mural in the temple so that it can continue to inspire generations.

Giving Feedback on the Manti Temple Renovation

There are a few ways that interested parties can give feedback to the Church about the upcoming Manti Temple renovation:

1. There is a Facebook page with updates on ways to get involved, and notification of upcoming events:  

   https://www.facebook.com/preservethemantitemple

2. The First Presidency has requested a report on concerns about the renovation of the Manti temple. 

   Anyone who would like to share their concerns about the renovation can email Brother Juan Becerra 

   (JTBecerra@ChurchofJesusChrist.org), and their message will be included in the report to the First Presidency. 

   (Please avoid being critical--effective letters and messages will focus on the meaning of the

    temple to you and its history, and desires for a more sensitive renovation.)

3. Talk to your Bishop and Stake President.  Let them know your concerns about the plans for the Manti Temple, and ask them to pass your concerns up the chain of authority. It is especially helpful if you also write them a letter, so they can pass your concerns along to the Area Authorities without error or distortion.

4. Send a copy of your letter to:

Church Office Building

Public Affairs

50 East North Temple

Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

5. Send your letter via email to: RobertsSS@churchofjesuschrist.org.

6. Call 801-240-1000 and ask for Tom Owen, who is tasked by the Church to take calls about the Manti Temple project.

    

And if you want, you can sign the petition to preserve the Manti Temple here:

https://www.change.org/p/the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-save-the-manti-temple-murals.

Preservation Update: Surprise & Sorrow

The Church released a news story today announcing some changes to the Salt Lake Temple renovation and an update on the Manti Temple renovation. In contrast to the earlier announcement, which promised to preserve the Salt Lake Temple's architecture, restoring earlier styles such as paint colors, this news release announced that the Temple will transition to single-room, film-presentation of the endowment ordinance. Not only does this mean the loss of progression and live endowment, but it sounds like the temple will be significantly reconfigured--walls coming down, including murals, many of which will not be able to be preserved. It's Logan all over again.

Here are the releases of the planned endowment rooms. They are ornate, but fairly simple. No murals remain.

Before:

After:

The terrestrial room never had murals, so it looks largely the same, although the seats now face north instead of east.

The Celestial Room looks largely the same:

Furthermore, the release made it clear that the murals were removed, and not all of them were saved. Sure, pictures were taken before they were removed--as was done in Logan--but we probably won't see them again.

Furthermore, the same changes will be made in Manti--murals removed, rooms reconfigured, and presentation changed to single-room, film presentations. Ironically, the St. George Temple seems to have escaped these drastic changes (for now), in spite of its heavy use. Temples renovated earlier (like Idaho Falls, Mesa, and Laie) also escaped these changes. But Salt Lake and Manti--two of the top three most architecturally significant and preserved temples (the third is Cardston)--did not.

Why did this happen?

I personally had a lot of confidence that the Church would preserve the historic components of these temples. This announcement was surprising and disheartening.

The Church has always faced a pendulum with its historic architecture, swinging back and forth between preserving it and removing it. This is for two reasons:

1) Historic buildings are not built for the modern Church. Chapels and tabernacles were too small and too expensive. Temples are inefficient in terms of the number of sessions you can have and the number of people in each session. Live sessions require significantly more work on the part of temple workers. The Logan Temple was drastically remodeled because it was just inefficient and wait times were long. Plenty of tabernacles and chapels were not big enough for modern wards and stakes.

2) Historic buildings do not fit the Church's desired universal standard. Unlike most religious organizations, the Church is centrally managed. Local wards, stakes, and temple districts have little to no say on what is done with the architecture in their area. With worldwide administration, the Church wants to have a consistent experience across the world. This begs the question--should some members get to attend sacrament meeting in an ornate building with stained glass while 95%+ of the Church attends in plain, utilitarian chapels? Should those in Salt Lake or Manti get a different temple experience from those in other countries where there is no live endowment, no historic murals? Should millions more be expended on the preservation of those features?

I personally think that historic architecture that connects us to our past is more important than either of these concerns--and President Nelson's initial announcement of these renovations seemed to support that--but this sudden switch, announced more than a year into the renovation, seems to indicate that there was some debate or hesitancy among the top councils of the Church on these points. The Church also announced these changes after (it appears) murals have already been removed from Salt Lake. There is no way for local (or worldwide) members to petition these decisions.

This makes me significantly more concerned for historic buildings, temples and chapels alike, moving forward. Are we seeing the pendulum swift more toward a focus on efficiency, present uses, and consistency, as was done in the 60s and 70s? Or is this an aberration?

History shows that the Church goes back and forth on this, but the problem is that we can't ever get back the important architectural features that we lost. The connection of the Manti and Salt Lake temples will be gone, just as it is in Logan. History shows that this loss won't be easy--Spencer W. Kimball, who approved the drastic gutting of the Logan Temple, later said he regretted the loss of the original temple's architecture.

Historic architecture connects us to the past and places us in the context of the Church's timeline and our own family's timeline. These experiences are profoundly spiritual and difficult to replicate.