HISTORY
Welcome to St. John the
Evangelist Roman Catholic Congregation in Columbia, Maryland. Our parish
was founded in 1967 by Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, Archbishop of
Baltimore, to bring a Roman Catholic presence to Columbia as part of a
vision of interfaith religious life. St. John's is unique in the
Archdiocese of Baltimore and probably the Catholic world in that it
operates out of interfaith centers, shared buildings where individual
congregations, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, conduct the events of their own respective tradition within the same facility. St. John's is unique in Columbia, as well, because it is the only parish that operates out of two interfaith centers, the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center and the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center. From the first mass celebrated with eighteen families by Fr. John Walsh at the Slayton House in the Wilde Lake Village Green in September 1967 to the present day with a parish size of over 2900 families, St. John's has always focused on active participation in liturgies, the spread of the Good News, outreach, and community. Although written over twenty years ago, our mission statement still stands.
