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| Boston Massachusetts Mormon Temple Standing atop a wooded granite hillside in the northwest suburb of Belmont, the Boston Massachusetts Temple, the first temple built in New England, is a striking landmark along the busy Concord Turnpike. It is the home to the church's most prominent member: Gov. Mitt Romney, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, and several noted academics, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard history professor Laurel Ulrich. A Brief History... Boston was home to a 400-member Mormon congregation in the mid-1800s, the largest in the eastern United States at the time. However, it disbanded shortly after the slaying of founder Joseph Smith in 1844, when Mormons fled widespread persecution with a mass migration to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. After a century later, Mormons returned in notable numbers to Massachusetts in the 1960s. Mormons have also pushed evangelization in immigrant communities. About 140 Mormon missionaries work daily in Massachusetts, spreading the faith through street evangelism and door-to-door visits. Between 1994 and 2004, Massachusetts membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints increased 56%, from 14,840 to 23,161. A small amount, compared to the state's 3 million-member Catholic church. But it approaches the 33,400 state members of the Unitarian Universalist Association, whose roots in Massachusetts go back to the 18th century. Sources: |
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