Maronite Mass gets trial run at Shoreline parish
The 12:30 p.m. service will be mainly in English, with some chants and songs in Arabic and Syriac, a dead language closely related to Aramaic.
It is, most likely, Seattle's first Catholic Mass featuring Arabic, according to Bill Gallant, communications director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. With the support of the archdiocese, the Maronite Catholic Mission of Seattle will be housed as guests at St. Luke's.
The move is an attempt by the Maronite Catholic Church to see if Seattle can really sustain a full-time pastor and church.
The Rev. Peter Karam, who came from San Francisco and will say the Mass, will be in Seattle for about nine months. He persuaded the Maronite bishop in St. Louis, who oversees the Maronite diocese in the Western United States, that "there must be something up here in Seattle." He hopes that Maronite families, Lebanese, and second- and third-generation Lebanese Americans interested in preserving their Maronite faith and heritage will attend the services.
"Since there is no Maronite church here, I thought we would do something about it and at least try to get something going," Karam said. "If the response is good, fine. If not, we close the chapter on Seattle for some time."
The Maronite Catholic Church began in the fourth century as a monastic movement, with monks who gathered around a priest named St. Maron. He built a monastery in present-day Syria; from there, missionaries went to Lebanon to preach Christianity.
During the Muslim conquest between the 600s and 700s, the Maronites took refuge in the mountains of Lebanon. There they established a church and a unique religious and cultural identity. They lived in isolation until the Crusades, when they established ties with the church in Rome.
In the 19th century, under pressure of persecution, Maronites began migrating, first to South America, then to the U.S. and elsewhere. Today there are about 7 million Maronites worldwide, most of them in Brazil (with 3 million or 4 million) and the United States (with 1.2 million Maronites, and 83 Maronite churches). About 1 million Maronites remain in Lebanon.
The spiritual head of the Maronite Catholic Church, after the pope, is the patriarch, who resides in Lebanon.
Maronite Catholicism and Roman Catholicism generally share the same theological and moral views. The differences are in the areas of customs, liturgy and ecclesial discipline.
Compared to Roman Catholic Masses, Maronite Masses tend to use more elements, such as incense and symbolic gestures, Karam said. Baptism and confirmation, which are performed separately in the Roman Catholic Church, are performed at the same time in the Maronite Catholic Church. And Maronite priests in the Middle East have the option of remaining celibate or marrying.
For the past few years the 150 to 250 Maronite families in Seattle have made do by inviting a Maronite priest to come to Seattle for occasions such as weddings and baptisms. The families usually pay for such visits, said Bill Farhat, a member of the welcoming committee for Karam.
A couple of years ago, the local community subsidized once-a-month visits from a priest in Portland, where there is a Maronite Catholic Church. "That wasn't good enough to really reach the community and convince them that this was going to fly," said George Faddoul, a Maronite who lives in Kenmore.
Faddoul hopes that this time, with a full-time priest and more Lebanese Christian immigrants here, a full-time church can be established.
Faddoul, who came from Lebanon 22 years ago, has been going to Roman Catholic services.
"Although Roman Catholic is as close as it gets to Maronite religion, there is still some essence of the Eastern tradition that the Maronite tradition kept," he said. "And that is something we miss as Maronites."
It's not just Maronites who are welcoming Karam. Farhat, a property manager in Seattle who came from Lebanon 31 years ago, is a Melkite, another of the Eastern-rite communities of the Roman Catholic Church.
He thinks many local Lebanese — not just Maronites — will be interested in the mission. About 300 families are on the mailing list of the Lebanese American Club, he said. About 80 percent of them are Christian, many of them Maronite, Melkite or Greek Orthodox.
Seattle has Greek Orthodox churches but not Melkite or Maronite. People miss hearing the services in their native language, with their familiar rituals, Farhat said. He would like a Melkite church here but knows that may be a long time off.
"We reached a point where we're not choosy any more as long as they give us one," he said.
Janet I. Tu can be reached at 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com.