History

Mgr Ziade together with Mr. Habib Hanna at Harris Park, Joe Abood, Tanous Abood, Habib Hanna, & Wajih Samia, and Louie Wehbe attended upon the owner Mr Saad at Richmond/Windsor.

Mr. Saad agreed to sell the land for the amount of $22,500. (11,000 pounds). And he donated $A500 of the purchase price to Our Lady.

The Church solicitor was Phillip Malouf & Associates.

The property was vested in the name of “The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney” to be held in trust for the Maronite Community.

The Maronite Sisters Of the Holy Family started to visit the community, house by house to collect the necessary money to repay the loans raised for the building of Our Lady of Lebanon Church. Victor Sahade arranged to have the church constituted Our Lady of Lebanon War Memorial Church and School. After excavating deep foundations and pouring hundreds of tons of concrete and steel. The forms of large thick columns began to take shape in the skyline. The project continued until the pouring of the concrete to form the slab comprising the church’s ground floor. The enthusiasm developed in the hearts of the Maronites. They started to give very generous donations and to come to the location to view the progress of the building.

The Foundation Stone Mgr Ziade with His Eminence Cardinal Gilroy blessed and laid the foundation stone. This ceremony was held on Palm Sunday the 22nd March, 1970. More than 10,000 Maronites were at the site of Our Lady of Lebanon to welcome the Cardinal and to acclaim him with palms, olive branches and candles.

The Architect was Mr Bruce Smith of Parramatta. The Engineer, Mr Hadley. The Builder, Mr Louie Wehbe of LDL Pty Ltd

Mgr Ziade appointed a Building committee to supervise the new project. They appointed Messrs. Louie Wehbe, Toufic Merhi, Tannous Abood, Anthony Sahyoun, Karim Kisrwani, George Kahwagi and Tansa Youssef to this Committee

All building approvals were granted by Parramatta City Council

The Church is Built
From December 1971, the hall was used as a Church whilst the building of the Church complex continued.

Our Lady of Lebanon Hall and School were opened and blessed on 10th December 1972.

From 1972 until 1978 the Hall was the Church where Mass was celebrated for several years prior to the building of the Church.

On 6th August 1978, Our Lady of Lebanon Church which seats 1800 people was officially opened and blessed by Archbishop Abdo Khalifé 6th August 1978.

The Statue

The Statue was erected at 11:20am on 28th April 1976. The cost $9,000 in 1976. It was Blue and White. It was sculpted by Ron Williams. It was approximately seven (7) metres high. Due to continued objections from neighbours and the council about its size and appearance, it was replaced in 1979/80. The current statue, which is made from bronze was imported Italy. It is approximately 5 metres high. An Italian engineer came from Italy with the Statue to install the Statue, and The Stations of the Cross.

A house in Alfred Street was bought and used as the presbytery for the Church but it has since been demolished and is now the site of Our Lady of Lebanon Hostel which was completed in 1991.

The Hostel
The Hostel was created and built under the direction of Archbishop Abdo Khalife in 1983/4.
A grant was made by the Government to the Archdiocese in 1989. It was opened in February 1992
The founding board members were John Isaac, Fr Michael Kairouz, Peter Abood, Joseph P Khoury, under the auspice of the Archbishop Khalife.
The Builder was Naim Khatter. The Architect was George El-Khoury. The Pioneer Administrator was Colleen Joseph Feb 1992 to April 1992. Sr Pierette Abou Jaoudie April 1992 to December 1995.
It is currently run by Sister Genevieve Doumit since March 1995. There are currently 30 residents, and it is a full house.

The Youth and Parish Centre
In 1996, the primary school run by the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family was moved to a new building site opposite the church to accommodate the first permanent school block. These blocks became known as 23-25 Alice street

The old school was renovated into the Youth and Parish Centre. This was opened by Bishop Joseph Hitti opened on 26th May 1996.

The centre was used for the following; a conference centre,for Bible studies, Arabic school, Pre-marriage classes, Farsan, Sunday School, A fully equipped with an audio-visual system for conferences on religious, social, health and cultural topics. The bi-lingual Maronite Natural Family Planning Office, the Library/Board Meeting Room, the Maronite Catholic Society Welfare Office, the Youth Worker/Psychologist, the Parish Room which produces the Parish Bulletin and other newsletters.

In April 2003, this has now become the Parish Office for the Priests, The MYO and MAM.

The Grotto/ Shelter in front of the Church Entrance
The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes was built in 1982. The Grotto was upgraded and the floor was tiled.
It was renovated and upgraded in 1995.

The Shelter was built in 1995/6. The builder was Fouad Deire.

The Car Park
The two houses in front of the Church were bought in 1986 and they too have been demolished to increase space available for on-site parking

The building of the Car Park was commenced by Father Maroun Moussa in 1998.

Level 2 & 3 were commenced and completed by the Late Mons Sarkis in 1999/2000.

A Church Building Committee was appointed to administer and build the car park

There have been many generous builders, electricians, plumbers, excavators, and the general congregation who have donated many hours and money in assisting and bringing the project to the stage it is today.

The Units
The Units beside the Church were purchased in September 2000 from Hamid Masri for the sum of $1,250,000.

The Parish Committees of Our Lady 1. The Parish Committee 2. The Ladies Auxiliary 3. Maronite Youth Organisation (MYO) 4. The Sodality of the Immaculate Conception (The Akhaweya) 5. Marian Apostolic Movement (MAM) 6. The Prayer Group 7. The English Choir 8. The Arabic Choir 9. Sunday Liturgy 10. The Altar Boys 11. The Farsan 12. Saturday School 13 The Caretaker - Abdo

Priests of Our Lady of Lebanon
Monsignor Shora Maree - Parish Priest
Father Freiha Akiki- Assistant Parish Priest
Father Sam Wehbe - Assistant Parish Priest
Father Paul Joubeir - Assistant Parish Priest
Father Pierre Khoury - Assistant Parish Priest
Father Antoun Abou Antoun -Assistant Parish Priest
Father Nakhle Akiki - Assistant Parish Priest
Father Elias Ayoub - Assistant Parish Priest

Our Lady Of Lebanon, Celebrating 25 Years