New Maronite Catholic Church being Built in Washington DC

February 28, 2002

Source: The Washington Post

On February 28, 2002, The Washington Post reported that "bucking a decades-long trend in which the vast majority of new places of worship have been built in the suburbs, Our Lady of Lebanon, a 36-year-old congregation of Maronite Catholics, has begun building its first church on Alaska Avenue in Northwest Washington... The 18,000-square-foot limestone church... is intended to reflect the congregation's religious and architectural roots in Lebanon, the Middle Eastern homeland of most of its members... The high cost of land in the District and the difficulty of obtaining space for parking and weekday activities has pushed many religious communities to build in the suburbs... Our Lady of Lebanon is an exception to the suburban trend but not the only one. Washington's Sikh community is building the capital's first Sikh temple, on Massachusetts Avenue."