St. Ambrose dedicates new sanctuary

Hundreds of church members celebrated the completion of the new sanctuary at St. Ambrose Catholic Church on Woodburn Road in Annandale last week at a dedication ceremony and special Mass.

The old church building had become too small for the growing parish and needed extensive repairs. Church members began fundraising efforts for a new sanctuary in 2014. It took years, but they eventually raised nearly $10 million.

A key feature of the new sanctuary is a series of restored 1890 stained glass panels and a rose window from a closed church in the Philadelphia area.

The building has a vaulted painted ceiling, a marble altar, and cherry wood pews. Stones from the Holy Land are buried under the floor. Special tiles indicate where they are, and a plaque on the wall identifies the holy place in Israel where each stone came from.

The special mass included rituals “to consecrate the altar and the church itself for sacred use,” said Music Director Jon Laird.

The altar and the walls were anointed with oil, Laird said. “The entire church was filled with incense, which symbolized our prayers rising to God. Special dedication candles symbolized the light of Christ.”

According to the Arlington Catholic Herald, the rector of the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan gave the church a relic of St. Ambrose and a brick from his tomb.