By Caryle Murphy February 28, 2002
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, which is going up near Walter Reed Army Medical Center, is intended to reflect the congregation’s religious and architectural roots in Lebanon, the Middle Eastern homeland of most of its members.
“It will be a monument that will reflect the faith of our people,” said the Rev. Dominic F. Ashkar, the pastor. “It’s going to be a church that is from our Maronite tradition . . . that is 1,500 years old.”
“After all of these years, it has been wonderful that we have been able to build a real church,” said Mary Ackourey, president of the parish council. For the first time, she said, the congregation will have a place “where people can actually . . . have the quiet to sit and pray without people talking in the back.”
Construction of the $3 million church is expected to last 18 months.
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. The last church built in the city by the Washington Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, for example, was St. Luke’s on East Capitol Street SE in the late 1950s, an archdiocesan spokesman said.
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 at 38th Street NW.
Ashkar, 65, said his congregation, whose 400 families live throughout the metropolitan area, has been worshiping for more than 35 years in the multipurpose room of the Maronite seminary at 7164 Alaska Ave. NW, next to the site of the new church.
“They decided to stay where they started,” he said.
Ackourey, a federal government security specialist who lives in Arlington, said the parish made “a conscious decision” to remain in the District. In a survey, most members said they wanted to stay because “we had established ourselves in the District . . . and everybody knew where our location was,” she said.
Ashkar, pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon for 13 years, said he enlisted Lebanese architect Alexis Moukarzel to design the church, whose pews will hold 200 worshipers.
The priest said he wanted the design to be a combination of “the modern and the old,” reflecting the ancient Maronite tradition and the new millennium. He also wanted it to be constructed so that when parishioners enter the rectangular church, “you will be entering from darkness to light.”
Thus, the interior will have a darkened entrance and no windows, lighted only by a large skylight in the apse over a simple stone altar. The skylight will be covered by a blue-tinged steel and glass dome. A tower to the right of the church entrance will house a bell imported from Lebanon.
The separate baptismal area near the entrance will be shaped like an egg, a symbol of rebirth “that goes back to Phoenician times,” Ashkar said. In the basement will be a kitchen, social hall and classrooms for religious education.
The builder is Lahoud & Hardan Enterprises, of Coral Gables, Fla. The owners of the construction firm come from families involved in church building for three generations, according to a company statement.
There will be about 20 parking spaces on the church lot and parking for an additional 30 vehicles at the seminary next door.
Ashkar said the congregation has raised about $2 million toward the cost of the church. One donor, he said, gave the congregation a $1 million gift.
Parishioners, who include recent immigrants as well as children and grandchildren of earlier immigrants, worship at two Sunday services, with one Mass said in Arabic and the other in English. At both, the words consecrating the Eucharist are repeated in the ancient language of Aramaic, believed to be the language spoken by Christ, Ashkar said.
The Maronite Church, which dates from the fifth century, is one of the largest Eastern-rite communities of the Roman Catholic Church and is especially prominent in Lebanon. It has its own patriarch but recognizes the authority of the pope.
Ashkar said he encourages his flock to attend services at Our Lady of Lebanon, even if it is a bit of a drive, to keep in touch with their past. “Come here,” he tells them, “so you won’t forget your traditions.”
At top, an illustration depicts Our Lady of Lebanon’s new church, being built on Alaska Avenue NW. Above is the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dominic F. Ashkar.
