Photo by Julianna Leopold

MARIETTA—Father Dominic Tran’s hands brushed across the cinder block wall, as he described which walls stay and which ones would come down as part of the renovation for the new Our Lady of La Vang Church.  

After celebrating its first Mass in August, the Vietnamese community is transforming a vacant Cobb County grade school into a hub for worship, community and prayer.  

Its need for more space was quickly felt. At the first Mass, some 700 people came to worship, nearly doubling the chapel’s capacity. 

That is spurring Father Tran to move quickly to knock down walls and enlarge what was once the school gym into a sanctuary for Mass. 

This work is being accomplished with the grace of God, said the 54-year-old priest. This ministry is exciting, but when initially asked to take on the endeavor, he had apprehension about starting from nothing.  

“We didn’t have anything yet. I put my trust in God,” he said.  

Getting to know neighbors 

Building a church from the ground up is a new project for Father Tran, who was ordained in 2009. As part of his plan, he visited nearly two dozen neighbors of the building, leaving chocolates and bottles of wine, and encouraged them to call him with concerns. He plans to take up a lunch invitation from a pastor at a neighboring Protestant church.  

This community started about three years ago to serve the Vietnamese on the west side of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. It is the third established Vietnamese church. The original parish is Our Lady of Vietnam Church, south of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Norcross. For months, Our Lady of La Vang members worshipped in the gym at Blessed Trinity High School in Roswell. Last fall, the community and the archdiocese bought this property for nearly $4.3 million and got the necessary city permits in late July.  

The community is starting its own heartfelt traditions, such as honoring its patroness on August’s Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Girls in white dresses carried flower bouquets as the faithful walked in a procession alongside a statue of its patron carried on men’s shoulders.  

Father Dominic Tran sits in the donated pews that he moved into Our Lady of La Vang Church himself with parishioners’ help. The former school building is some 60,000 square feet, larger than a football field. Photo by Julianna Leopold

A growing religious education program now numbers 100 students, starting from 20 in 2024, he said. A faith formation and social ministry for men and women is getting off the ground.  

The building is some 60,000 square feet, making it larger than a football field. Father Tran has plans for excess classrooms. One is developing the library wing into a retreat facility for youth and others. He envisions weaving a nature trail with Stations of the Cross prayer areas in the school’s two acres of woods. 

Another school may become home to the training of men studying for the permanent diaconate, moving it from St. Paul of the Cross Church. 

The building still has the marks of a school. Metal file cabinets and desks fill some rooms. A wooden sign nailed to a wall outside the former gym turned social hall announces “Eastvalley Elementary School is a caring community with a passion for learning.” 

The cafeteria where youngsters on stage once entertained beaming parents is now the chapel sanctuary. The altar and other sacred objects were donated by Our Lady of Vietnam Church in Riverdale and St. Thomas More Church in Decatur. The pews that can seat more than 300 people were donated from a Protestant church.  

Mass attendance has exceeded the chapel’s capacity. Since then, a large nearby room has been set up for crowds. Soon, there will be a Saturday Mass and two on Sunday to spread the crowds out.  

Parishioners like Dianne Vu are taking up the challenge of raising money. A member from the community’s start, she and a handful of others spend time in the commercial kitchen baking mooncakes sold after Mass. Vu said she isn’t a baker at all, leaving her home kitchen to her husband, but thinks it’s important to serve. Even if that means trial and error in preparing the cakes, she laughed.  

“We try to work hard to make this happen,” Vu said. “It’s just not because of our ability, but we’re working with love.”