Perhaps two words encapsulated what the day meant for members of Kidane-Mehret Parish for Ethiopian Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington.
“Welcome home!” said Father Ebuka Mbanude, the director of the archdiocese’s Office of Evangelization, who smiled as he addressed Kidane-Mehret parishioners and guests after a nearly three-hour reverent and joyful Mass on Aug. 24, 2025 at Holy Spirit Church in Forestville, Maryland celebrating that church becoming the parish’s new home after a 41-year odyssey for that community.
Since the Kidane-Mehret Ge’ez Rite Ethiopian Catholic Church was established in the archdiocese in 1984, its members have worshipped in several locations in Washington, D.C., first at St. Gabriel’s Church, then at chapels at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Theological College, then at the former building of All Saints High School, then at St. Vincent de Paul Church, and in recent years at the St. Ursula Chapel of the archdiocese’s Pastoral Center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Kidane-Mehret was erected as a parish in the Archdiocese of Washington in December 2023.
The Mass at Holy Spirit Church also marked the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a large ornate icon of Mary holding the Child Jesus was placed beside the lectern, with red roses decorating its frame.
The Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, and in Ge’ez, a classical language of Ethiopia still used as a liturgical language for Ethiopian Christians. A Scripture reading and some remarks during the Mass were made in English. Kidane-Mehret translated from Ge’ez to English means “Covenant of Mercy.” As in other Eastern Rites, most of the liturgy was sung.
The congregation – including women wearing traditional Ethiopian scarves and long cotton dresses – filled the church. An adult choir led the singing, and a youth choir with about 40 children sang songs honoring Mary.
Father Abayneh Gebremichael – a priest of the Archdiocese of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who has served as the pastor of Kidane-Mehret since 2016 – was the main celebrant at the Mass. Addressing the congregation after Communion, he said, “Today we gather in joy and gratitude, for the Lord has done great things for us… Our dream has come true. We now have a permanent church.”
In an earlier interview, he noted that the Ethiopian Catholics in Kidane-Mehret were like “wanderers and nomads (going from) place to place” for Mass over the years, and he compared them to the Israelites wandering with Moses in the desert for 40 years until they found the Promised Land.
The Kidane-Mehret parishioners, he said, “do everything for our community,” participating in parish ministries and community outreach and have generously supported their church over the years as it sought a home. Kidane-Mehret includes about 400 families from throughout the Washington metropolitan area.
The Ethiopian Catholic parish will be sharing the church at 1717 Ritchie Road in Forestville with Holy Spirit Parish, which was established in 1966. Father Gebremichael said Holy Spirit parishioners have been very welcoming to them. Kidane-Mehret’s first Masses were celebrated earlier in August at Holy Spirit Church, and in preparation for the special Mass on Aug. 24, parishioners pitched in to clean the church and paint its doors.
“We believe that Mary chose her place,” the priest said, crediting the parish’s patroness with helping them find a church home.
The dramatic liturgy included hauntingly beautiful songs led by the choir and prayers chanted by the priests and people.
In his homily at the Mass, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar said, “I feel like I’m swimming in an ocean of God’s mystery today.”
Holy Spirit Church, he said, is a “beautiful temple” that now becomes a place where two communities, the Latin Rite parish of Holy Spirit and the Eastern Rite parish of Kidane-Mehret, become “one family, united in Christ.”
Bishop Menjivar said those two parishes sharing a church reminded him of a “new Pentecost… This presence of the Holy Spirit makes us one, two traditions in this place, but one faith.” Those two communities representing different cultures, he said, are “one Body in Christ,” who have received the same Baptism and celebrate the same Eucharist.
The bishop said celebrating the Assumption of Mary into heaven “is about our common destiny as well. As Christians, as believers, heaven is our eternal and permanent home.”
In the Jubilee Year, the faithful are called to be “pilgrims of hope,” Bishop Menjivar said, adding that Mary, the first pilgrim to follow Jesus, “is a radiant beacon of hope. She teaches us to walk in faith, bringing Christ to others with joy… This is the call to you, to all of us, to walk together in faith.” Both parish communities will enrich each other, he said.
Bishop Menjivar noted that the members of Kidane-Mehret “are welcomed today into this parish family. You are not here as strangers or guests. You are here as brothers and sisters in Christ… You come to this church, this parish, this neighborhood bringing Christ, and with Him, your faith, your culture (and) your language, bringing new life and joy, bringing vitality to this church… This house of the Holy Spirit is now your house.”
That day, he said, marked a new beginning, and a new chapter for the Kidane-Mehret parish family. “Today you start your pilgrimage with new friends, in a new church home.”
As the Mass ended, the priests and choir members gathered together in front of the sanctuary for some joyful singing and dancing, as a man in the center tapped his hand on a large drum.
The Ethiopian priests concelebrating the Mass included Father Tesfamariam Baraki, who served as the founding pastor of Kidane-Mehret for 17 years and now serves as a chaplain at Howard University Hospital in Washington. The archdiocesan priests at the Mass included Father Mbanude, who in addition to leading the Office of Evangelization also serves as the administrator of St. Francis Xavier Parish and Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Washington; and Father Jeffrey Samaha, the longtime chaplain at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton who is in residence at Holy Spirit Parish.
At a luncheon afterward, the Kidane-Mehret parishioners and guests enjoyed traditional Ethiopian food.
In an interview, Father Samuel Plummer, the administrator of Holy Spirit Parish, said Kidane-Mehret also having the church as a parish home would bring life to the original parish there.
“It’s a sign of the Holy Spirit at work,” said the priest, who also serves as the pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Upper Marlboro. He added, “Who knows what the Lord has in store for this community, this area?”
During the luncheon, Kidane-Mehret parishioners reflected on what having a church of their own meant to them.
Haregewine Messert, a pastry chef who has attended Kidane-Mehret for 25 years, said, “It’s like the Bible, Moses running around 40 years for his people,” and in the 41st year, they found their land. “We ran around for 40 years, and in the 41st, we have our home.”
She added, “This (parish) is our home, our community. This is where we raise our kids, teach our culture… (and teach them) not to forget where they come from, and what their religion is.”
Fentahun Tiruneh, who works for the Library of Congress and has been a member of Kidane-Mehret since 1994, said having a church home “is tremendous, just tremendous.”
When he immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia decades ago, joining Kidane-Mehret helped him return to the Catholic faith of his childhood. “I felt at home… I could easily come back to God. There was no middle way for me,” said Tiruneh, who has served on the parish council there over the years.
Letemariam Tesfat, a retired teacher at a daycare center who has been a member of the Kidane-Mehret community since it began, spoke about their devotion to Mary. She said Mary helped keep them together as a parish family and helped them find a church home.
“Mary is our mother, everywhere we go, back there and here,” she said, adding, “Mother Mary interceded for us… She did it.”
Expressing the joy of that day, Tesfat said, “We are so happy. Finally, Kidane-Mehret has a home!”
That point was echoed by Nigist Abate, who works as a director of sales and marketing for the Marriott Corporation and earlier worked as a news anchor on national television in Ethiopia. After immigrating to the United States in 1999, she became a member of Kidane-Mehret. “It’s so good to connect with people from the same religious background,” she said.
After the Mass for Kidane-Mehret Parish at its new home, Holy Spirit Church, the former journalist said, “This is really big news, knowing we have our own church… To go to a place you know is your own, it definitely feels good.”
