Welcome to St. Joseph Mission,
I would like to welcome all of you to our mission. May the Holy Spirit lead you to seek God’s plan in your life.
Saint Joseph community is an Eastern Syriac Catholic Mission founded in November 2001, affiliated with the Maronite, Melkite, and Orthodox. The parish includes mostly members of Lebanese and other Middle Eastern descents: Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians, along with their American friends and relatives. It was founded with Father Peter Karam under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Our Lady of Lebanon for the Maronite Church in Los Angeles, CA and due to unexpected circumstances he was relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. Therefore the priest position was vacant, and that is where the Diocese of Newton for Melkite Church stepped in and took a leading role in serving the new mission. In December 2005 Father Charles Kattan was appointed to serve this new mission for nine months. In October 2006 Father Samir Abu Lail was appointed as a new administrator to replace Father Charles and to serve this mission.
With the establishment of a new mission, a new era has begun for all the Middle Eastern Christians in the Seattle area where they can celebrate the Divine Liturgy in their language, their traditions, and give the opportunity to their kids, to learn and share in their Christian faith and tradition, so they can live and grow up in a strong belief in their life.
As a priest, my role is to return this mission to its original track, to convince all community members that this mission is here to stay and to remind everyone that this is their parish that they belong to it, regardless your background: one Church, in Christ Jesus, our God and Savior.
Like any other mission, we have set our goals, primarily, to have our own building. This will only happen through the generosity, kindness, dedication and hard work of our parishioners.
Again, I welcome all of you to our humble mission. We want all people like you to share our joy, commitment and dedication. We want you to practice and live the faith. We want everyone regardless of his background to grow up with us as one family, and share our faith and our goals.
May God bless you all
Fr. Samir Abu Lail
Administrator
History
Beginning
Reverend Peter Karam visited Seattle in October 2001 and started a church to fulfill the religious needs of the local Mideastern Christian community.Members Profile
The St. Joseph parish includes mostly members of Lebanese and other Middle Eastern descents, along with their American friends and relatives. Everyone is welcome to our parish regardless of their faith or origin.Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the Archdiocese of Seattle and particularly to Archbishop Alex J. Brunett whose undying support for the St. Joseph mission has allowed us to prosper. Also, by generously donating the use of St. Mathew's, they have given us a home until we can build our own.Chronology
- 2001-11: The first St. Joseph Divine Liturgy is celebrated at St. Matthew's church in North Seattle, Washington, USA
- 2004-11: A Sunday School service is created for the parish youth
- 2005-03: A website is created to help expand and connect the parish. Its address www.maryoussef.org means Saint (Mar) Joseph (Youssef) in Arabic
- 2005-03: A Pastoral Council is created to support the pastor with the parish administration
- 2005-06: Fr. Peter Karam is reassigned to another parish. All parish activities are temporarily suspended
- 2005-12: Fr. Charles Kattan is assigned to the parish. Mass service is resumed
- 2006-04: The web site name is changed to the easier www.stjosephofseattle.org
- 2006-10: Fr. Charles Kattan is reassigned to another parish. Fr. Samir Abu Lail is assigned to the parish.