1 A Lebanese ethnic Congregation within the Roman Catholic Church which has its own distinctive

Abstract: The research described in this paper examined the religious influence on the lives of a group of young Australian-Lebanese adults who attended a Maronite1 Catholic Church in Sydney, Australia. Data gathered through qualitative methods of in-depth and focus group interviews were collated using grounded theory, to reveal how religion defined a pattern of beliefs and morals and how it offered spirituality and social structures that guided these thirty three young Maronite adults. It was revealed that the Maronite Catholic faith of these young adults was tightly interwoven with nationality and Lebanese culture. Maronite identity Religious identity can be an influential part of people’s lives, giving members of a faith tradition a sense of belonging to a community of believers with a distinctive history. So when asked what features / markers distinguish a Maronite, a majority of the participants in this study claimed that the Maronites belonged to an Eastern Catholic Rite and Antiochean Church. Being Maronite was connected with the notion of being other, of belonging to a smaller Catholic group, which appeared to be more favourable than claiming affiliation with the larger Roman Catholic Church. However a small number of the participants stated it was just part of the Catholic Church without any defining difference. An overwhelming number of the participants in this study did associate their Maronite Catholic identity with a nation. I believe the most important thing to that question is that the part of being Maronite is that we are the Christians who exist in the Middle East … I’d be very strong on th