chapel updates


August 4, 2025 - The parking lot prep and excavation has begun. 


July 10, 2025 - Fairfax County Architectural Review Board (ARB) Approval - outside stairs to basement and ADA entrance to main level approved


May 21, 2025 - We have applied for a permit!


February 27, 2025 - Buildout design approved! 


December 9, 2024 - We received approval from The Virginia Department of Historic Resources.  Another step forward. 


December 3, 2024 - We have chairs! Thank you to everyone that helped pick up the chairs from GA and for those that helped move them into the chapel. 


July 3, 2024 - Lease was signed!


SOUTH COUNTY CHURCH @ LIBERTY CHAPEL



On July 3, 2024, we signed the lease for the former Lorton prison chapel—what a monumental day! We are so thankful for all the prayers, encouragement, and support that brought us to this moment. Now the real fun begins. Check back here for updates as the project develops. Exciting days are ahead!


We are thrilled about the future and look forward with great anticipation to having a building we can finally call our own. The former Lorton prison chapel, located at 8475 Reformatory Way in Lorton, Virginia, is a place we’ve been watching and waiting for since 2011.


Affectionately known as Liberty Chapel, the building is approximately 20,000 square feet. This space will allow us to fully support our current programs while also creating room for future growth. Beyond our regular family programs, we envision a safe and welcoming place for students before and after school—where they can have fun, receive tutoring, and be mentored in a caring environment.



Ways you can be a part


Prayer Praying Hands 

Keep the chapel and all that will be happening to get us in the building in your prayers. This is a leap of faith for SCC, but we know as we take the step of faith and do our part, God will show up and do His. 


Join a team Users

As we move closer to moving into Liberty Chapel we will need to make sure all of our teams are ready.  Please take a minute and let us know which team you would be interested in joining.  You can check out the list of teams and sign up for where you would be interested in serving at: Ways to Serve at SCC


Give Financially cash 

There will be many expected and unexpected expenses that will be coming our way as we take the steps to move forward with making the Chapel our home.  If you call SCC your church home and you are currently not giving, we ask that you follow the Lord by tithing - giving 10 percent of your income to God's work at SCC.  If you are currently tithing or you are a friend of SCC, consider giving an offering to help with the move.  There are multiple ways you can give. 

  • Give online by clicking here. After clicking on the link below, you will be taken to a secure site to fill in all the necessary information.
  • Text GIVE to 833/226-7990.
  • Mail a check, annotating the area you want to support, to South County Church, PO Box 1348, Lorton, VA 22199


Downloadable Chapel Brochure

Building Committee

Chris Call

Desi Cullen

Andy Casper

Martin Jacobs

John Albanese

Lorton Prison Chapel History


Built from 1958-1961
20,000 square feet of space includes a mezzanine and a basement
The L-shaped walls are about 25 feet tall and 60 feet long


Lorton History: A Cross for Prisoners

Patch, April 22, 2011


Religion: Christ the Prisoner

Time Magazine, September 22, 1961


Lifers Program in the Chapel, Marion Barry Visits


Boundy Stone - WETA's Local History Website
In the 1960s, Prison Chaplains Created
a Star Studded Music Festival at Lorton Reformatory




Lorton Reformatory Ariel View



Friday, Sept. 22, 1961 (TIME excerpt) 

Dedicated last week was a new chapel that was designed by a professional forger, decorated by a two-man team composed of a thief and a murderer, and built by laborers on a wage scale that ranged from $1.20 to $7.70 a month. Its 1,000-odd congregation: inmates of the District of Columbia Reformatory (for men) at Lorton. Va. The chapel is interdenominational, designed so that Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish services, each seating as many as 500, may be held simultaneously or thrown together in one big, 1,200-capacity. But the man behind it is the prison’s senior Catholic chaplain, Father Carl J. Breitfeller