A Franconia nonprofit needing more space and an unused church building seems like a match made in heaven, but plans to expand Koinonia Foundation have been stuck in development hell.
Koinonia Foundation has long since outgrown its current space at 6037 Franconia Road, where it operates a food pantry, a clothing closet, and emergency financial aid with counseling — all in an 1,100-square-foot space.
The trustees of a Dunn Loring church have pulled back a proposal that some day might see their 4.2-acre site redeveloped for multi-family housing with a child-care center and new worship space.
Trustees of the Vine Church, a United Methodist-affiliated congregation located at 2501 Gallows Road, had nominated the site to be considered for Fairfax County’s site-specific plan amendment (SSPA) process, which allows members of the public to propose land use changes.
In 2023, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors allocated $15 million to the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Service Board to construct or renovate a crisis receiving center for youth behavioral health emergencies.
After more than a year, however, Fairfax has yet to pick a location – the next step to getting the center operational.
A Fairfax County supervisor’s request for information about creating a financial oversight body to control Metro drew rebukes from his colleagues during a meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 8).
It also led to some testy exchanges between Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the lone Republican on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and some of the board’s Democrats.
A historical marker now stands in McLean’s Clemyjontri Park as a monument to the site’s past as a center of social and spiritual activity for the local Black community.
Fairfax County officials, historians, students and present-day community leaders unveiled the marker commemorating Gunnell’s Chapel and its founder, Robert Gunnell, at a dedication ceremony last Saturday (Sept. 21).
As the heat of summer starts to fade, some Fairfax County churches are refocusing their charitable efforts on the community’s needs for the coming winter.
With support from the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, four churches in the county launched a winter coat drive earlier this month with the goal of collecting 10,000 coats for refugees, people experiencing homelessness and other community members in need.
A forest in Fairfax Station is set to receive some laurels.
The five-acre St. Peter’s in the Woods Episcopal Church Sanctuary Forest (5911 Fairview Woods Drive) will be designated as a community forest by the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN) on Sept. 14.
Hundreds of students at Reston’s Forest Edge Elementary School will head to class later this month with brand-new backpacks, thanks to a donation drive organized by a local church.
Congregants brought 240 backpacks filled with school supplies to the Trinity Church Reston campus (1950 Isaac Newton Square West) on Sunday (Aug. 4), according to campus pastor Robbie Hall, who thanked the donors for their generosity during the church’s 10 a.m. service.
A Vienna church hopes to soon draw energy from both the sun and God as it embarks on what appears to be the biggest solar panel project in the town so far.
With permitting almost complete, workers are slated to break ground on a solar photovoltaic canopy in the Church of the Holy Comforter’s parking lot at 543 Beulah Road NE in mid to late July, contractor Govan Builders says.
Plans to build housing in front of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Idylwood have been resurrected.
After a previous attempt in 2019 sputtered out, the church has found a new developer partner to potentially buy vacant portions of its property at 7426 Idylwood Road and transform it with residential development.
