The modern Maronite Church is facing a similar, yet still diverging, point in its history in comparison to the Byzantine Catholic Churches. The latter have expanded beyond their historical and national homelands, rendering them distinct from their original sources and similar to each other. For example, some Ukrainian Catholic parishes in Canada can be far more similar to Byzantine Catholic ones in the USA, than they are to Ukrainian Catholic parishes in Ukraine. However, the Maronite Church is facing the opposite side of that same coin. Now transnational, it is no longer a uniquely "Lebanese" Church, but Lebanon is still its homeland and unifying symbol. According to Father Geoffrey Abdallah, previous Dean of the Maronite Cathedral of Sydney, "the topics of ‘identity’ and ‘expansion’ were much discussed during the Maronite Synod [of 2004] – particularly the role of Lebanon and our relationship to Lebanon. However, we cannot avoid the reality that the majority of Maronites now live outside of Lebanon and are unlikely to return permanently to Lebanon. This does not mean that the Maronites living outside of Lebanon wish to form nationalistic Churches such as the Maronite Church of Australia or the Maronite Church of America etc., independent from Lebanon. Quite the opposite, we are requesting that the Maronite Church in Lebanon itself move from being a nationalistic Church into a universal [read transnational] Maronite Church, embracing all Maronites, regardless of their ethnicity or culture, for we are now, to use the opening words of Bishop Abikaram’s intervention in the Synod, ‘Maronites of the world.’ This is something positive and encouraging. Otherwise, the Maronite Church will become irrelevant to future generations born outside of Lebanon (Marounia)" (Tabar).
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