Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral, Harris Park
On Palm Sunday, March 22, 1970, around ten thousand people gathered on an elevated block of land in Harris Park to watch a foundation stone blessed and laid. Eight years later a church seating nearly two thousand rose on that same ground, and today it is the largest Maronite parish in Australia. Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral is the beating heart of Maronite life in western Sydney.
This page is the full profile of the church itself. For the wider story of Lebanese migration and the eparchy, see Maronites in Australia and Maronites in Sydney.
Where the church stands
Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral is in Harris Park, a suburb of Parramatta in Sydney's west. Parramatta and its surrounds became the centre of gravity for Lebanese Maronites who arrived after the Second World War and during the Lebanese Civil War, and the parish grew alongside them.
The site was chosen for its elevation and its view, an echo of the hillside at Harissa in Lebanon where the original shrine looks out over the sea. From the start, this was meant to be a place you could see from a distance and climb toward.
How the church was built
The story begins in January 1968, when Monsignor Peter Amin Ziade returned from Lebanon determined to build a church, presbytery, school, and hall for the growing Maronite community around Parramatta. A committee was formed and land was secured in Harris Park.
On Palm Sunday, March 22, 1970, Cardinal Norman Gilroy joined Monsignor Ziade to bless and lay the foundation stone before a crowd of roughly ten thousand. It was one of the largest gatherings the young community had ever held, and it signalled how much the parish would come to matter.
A hall and school were blessed and opened on December 10, 1972. From then until 1978, the hall doubled as the church while the main building took shape. On August 6, 1978, the completed church was officially opened and blessed by Archbishop Abdo Khalifé, the first Maronite bishop of Australia. The church seats around 1,800 people.
Elevation to a co-cathedral
For decades the parish served as the spiritual home of tens of thousands of Maronite families. On October 11, 2014, the church was formally elevated to the status of a co-cathedral, in the presence of Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, then the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia.
The seat of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney remains Saint Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, the mother church consecrated in 1897. A co-cathedral shares cathedral rank as a second principal church, and the title recognised what the Harris Park community had already become: the largest and best known Maronite parish in the country.
The devotion to Our Lady of Lebanon
The church takes its name and its devotion from the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon at Harissa, in the hills above the Bay of Jounieh north of Beirut. That shrine was established in 1904, and its great white statue of the Virgin Mary, arms open toward the sea, has become one of the most recognised images in all of Lebanon.
Our Lady of Lebanon is honoured as the protector of the nation, a title that unites Lebanese of every background. Her feast is kept on the first Sunday of May, when pilgrims climb to Harissa for Mass, the rosary, and processions.
When Maronites settled in Sydney, they brought this devotion with them. The Harris Park church is more than a building named after a shrine. It is a way of keeping Harissa present in a new land, so that a family in western Sydney can pray to the same Mother of God their grandparents prayed to on the Lebanese coast. You can read more about the origins of the devotion and the statue in our guide to the shrine at Harissa.
The parish community
Our Lady of Lebanon is a large, active, multi-generational parish. It has long been served by the Maronite Lebanese Missionaries, the same congregation entrusted with the shrine at Harissa, a link that ties the Sydney community directly to its Lebanese source.
The parish sits at the centre of a dense network of Maronite institutions in western Sydney, including the nearby Maronite College of the Holy Family in Harris Park. Baptisms, first communions, weddings, and funerals fill its calendar, and the Maronite liturgy is celebrated in a blend of Arabic, English, and Syriac, the ancient language of the rite.
Feasts and the liturgical year
The great moment of the parish year is the feast of Our Lady of Lebanon, kept in early May in keeping with the devotion at Harissa. The feast draws large crowds and often spills beyond the liturgy into the cultural life of the community, with the food, music, and gathering that mark every Maronite celebration.
Beyond the patronal feast, the church keeps the full Maronite calendar: the seasons of the Syriac liturgy, the feast of Saint Maron in February, and the devotion to Saint Charbel that runs so deep in the Australian community. For that devotion, the other great centre in Sydney is Saint Charbel's Monastery in Punchbowl.
Visiting the co-cathedral
Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral welcomes visitors and pilgrims. Mass is offered daily and on weekends, with liturgies in Arabic and English, and the church remains a place of quiet prayer between services.
Because schedules change with the seasons and feasts, it is best to check the parish or eparchy for current Mass times before you visit. What does not change is the character of the place: a large, warm, unmistakably Lebanese church where the devotion of Harissa lives on at the other end of the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral?
Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral stands in Harris Park, a suburb of Parramatta in western Sydney, Australia. It sits on an elevated site and is the largest Maronite parish in the country, part of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney.
When was Our Lady of Lebanon Harris Park built?
The foundation stone was laid on Palm Sunday, March 22, 1970, before a crowd of around ten thousand people. A hall and school opened in 1972 and served as the church while construction continued. The church itself was officially opened and blessed on August 6, 1978, and it seats about 1,800 people.
Is Our Lady of Lebanon a cathedral?
It is a co-cathedral. The church was elevated to co-cathedral status on October 11, 2014. The seat of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney is Saint Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, and Our Lady of Lebanon shares cathedral rank as a second principal church of the eparchy.
What is the devotion to Our Lady of Lebanon?
Our Lady of Lebanon is the Marian title tied to the shrine at Harissa, north of Beirut, established in 1904, where a large white statue of the Virgin Mary looks out over the bay. The devotion honours Mary as the protector of Lebanon, and its feast is kept on the first Sunday of May. The Harris Park church carries this same title and devotion to the Australian diaspora.
Who runs Our Lady of Lebanon in Harris Park?
The parish belongs to the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney and has long been served by the Maronite Lebanese Missionaries, the same congregation entrusted with the shrine at Harissa in Lebanon. The current Maronite bishop of Australia is Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay.
See also: Maronites in Sydney. Maronites in Australia. Saint Charbel's Monastery, Punchbowl. The shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon at Harissa. Maronites in Lebanon. The Maronite tradition.