The banner waving above the front door to Saint Luke Catholic School says it all - A Catholic Tradition. This school teaches the Catholic faith along with the academics. The school, which opened in September 1962, was financed through donations from the parish. The first teachers were Felician Sisters and parents. They taught grades 1 to 4. Over the years the school grew to include kindergarten to eighth grade students. The Sisters departed. Modernizations have included a computer lab, up-to-date classroom technology and a science lab. Each day begins and ends with prayer.
Charles Wesley United Methodist Church grew with McLean. It was born in 1958 just as McLean was evolving from farms to suburban subdivisions and bi-level homes. The church is nestled in a community just off of Westmoreland Street. It hosts two separate AA meetings and the World Children's Choir, which is a group of local youngsters. This is one of three United Methodist churches in McLean.
Saint Dunstans Episcopal Church has served the McLean community since 1956. The church first met at Chesterbrook Elementary School before moving to its own building on Kirby Road. Now, the church is housed in a strikingly modern building. The church maintains a Peace Garden where there is a sign in four languages that says, "May peace prevail on Earth." The church supports Martha's Table and Habitat for Humanity. Saint Dunstan was an Anglo-Saxon archbishop in the 10th Century.
Based in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Youth Apostles Institute coordinates youth ministry programs. The Catholic Life Communities provide spiritual support for high school students and the college campus ministry programs provide support at Marymount University and George Mason University.
Trinity United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church located in McLean offering regular worship every Sunday as well as a variety of other religious services. Religious education is offered for youth and adults. Men's, women's and youth ministries also exist and it runs an array of family assistance and community service programming.
Saint Luke's Catholic Church is a religious institution offering a safe and welcoming environment to pray and worship. The church offers a wide range of services and events for patrons, including weekly worship services, holiday events and educational programs. Some activities include ministries, music programs, adult education, Bible study, community service, youth ministries and more. The church holds social activities and also has a religious school with weekly classes for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Check the website for a full schedule of events or for details on how to register or volunteer with the church.
St. Luke celebrated its 50th anniversary in May 2011 and welcome a new priest in September.
The church, very modern in design, also has one of the most beautiful stained glass windows in McLean.
There is also a school. In fact the school was buit first and then the church.
St. John started in 1913 as a mission church in rural McLean. In 1956, an eight-sided church in the round was built to house the growing congregation. A simple alter sits in the middle of the sanctuary with light pouring in from the band of stained glass windows that ring the Church. Its school had been built two years earlier. The Church also has a carefully tended rose garden that offers an outdoor place for serenity and peace.
St. Thomas Episcopal is a cozy, modern church located at an entrance to busy Route 7. The church celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011, a reminder that it was founded on McLean's western edge, just as the area's farms were being transformed into suburban communities. The A-shaped church has plain glass windows and a simple, unadorned altar flanked by columns of strikingly blue stained glass .
Lutheran Church of The Redeemer is in the midst of building a new narthex. This is the latest expansion of the church founded in 1958 when McLean was just emerging as a suburb. The church has grown with the community expanding several times beyond its original space. The church supports a homeless organization in Washington, a partnership for those facing surgery and shawl ministry --- knitting shawls for those in need of comfort.
The meeting house, a plain white clapboard building dating from the 1890s hosts meetings and spiritual services for the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.
The meeting house, one of McLean's oldest buildings, consists of one large unadorned room filled with wooden benches. There is no pulpit. No minister. No rituals. It is a silent worship "to hear more clearly God's still small voice."
Korean United Methodist serves the growing Korean-American community in the Washington area. This is church built by immigrants who want to practice their faith in the traditions with which they are familiar and raise their children to understand those traditional values. The church also strives to help immigrants integrate into mainstream America. This was the first Korean-American congregation in the Washington area. The Korean services also have an English translation.
Providence Baptist Church looks likes a classic New England church -- red brick, white columns, a white steeple aspiring to the sky topped by a cross. The church started on Route 7 in Tysons Corner in 1951. The minister writes a blog sharing inspiration and the books he's reading. Providence works with churches in Africa and Latin America. There are ministries to both kids and senior citizens. The church also houses a preschool.
Immanuel Presbyterian Church is a strikingly modern church that effortlessly blends into its wooded surroundings. The church won a design award for its simple style. The sanctuary is small with clear glass on many sides. Immanuel partners with a church in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC, to run its "I Have a Dream" program. This welcoming, learning and serving church is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
This church is a stone's throw from the Capital Beltway but it rises in an almost rural setting. It's a large church that sits atop a small hill. It's nestled along a narrow road that deadends with a block of the church.
Holy Transfiguration Church is McLean's only Greek Catholic Church. The church's simple exterior gives way to an interior sanctuary filled with stunning art --- icon paintings of saints whose heads are illuminated with gold leaf. The church was founded 35 years ago by Middle Eastern immigrants. The Greek Catholic Church is in union with the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. Byzantine crosses -- a cross with three cross bars --- symbolizes the church. Among the church's most prized possessions: the largest relic in North America from the true cross in Rome and a rock from Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration.
Shiloh Baptist Church, in the shadow of Tyson's Corner, is one of the oldest and most historic black churches in Virginia. It's located in the former Odrick's Corner, an historic black community in McLean that has now disappeared. Shiloh is a warm and welcoming church that is centered on family. Some of the families trace their roots to the church's founding fathers and mothers.
The church's five guiding principles are worship, evangelism, discipleship, empowerment and service. The minister Reverend Robert F. Cheeks Jr. has been with the church since 2007. Bible classes are offered for pastors on Wednesdays at 6:30pm, for men on the first Monday of the month at 6:30pm, for women on the first Saturday of the month at 1pm, and for young adults on the third Saturday of the month at 1pm.