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A former telecom executive and attorney says he has proof that a Washington, D.C.-area Lutheran church has installed a cell phone tower behind what appears to be a chimney-like structure on its roof.

Joe Sandri, president and general counsel for Environmental Health Trust (EHT), says the nonprofit advocacy group identified the antenna at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, after one of its team members recognized unusual activity at the church.

“Our organization, Environmental Health Trust, has people on the ground who constantly look for unusual or potentially hazardous deployments,” Sandri told The Christian Post via email Tuesday. “In this case, deployment trucks were noticed on multiple days at the church preschool. We then observed the activities and took video along with photos.”

Images provided by Sandri’s team showed utility crews using a harness to install what appears to be a cell phone tower antenna encased in “faux brick” material, Sandri said, to conceal its contents. In another image, an unidentified utility worker dangles from a harness attached to the structure while installing a false front on the chimney to enclose the antenna.

Sandri said while there have been numerous documented examples of cell towers deployed or disguised near churches, he’s never seen one hidden so close to a school. “Until now, we had not yet seen one like the one at St. Luke’s, being right above a school and hidden by faux brick,” he said.

St. Luke Lutheran Church did not respond to a request for comment from CP as of Wednesday afternoon.

An interactive map indicates a wireless facility located at the high-traffic intersection of Dale Drive and Colesville Road (U.S. 29), where the church sits, was approved on Jan. 8, 2014.

Country records show that AT&T filed a tower coordination application in Montgomery County, Maryland, on Oct. 28, 2013, detailing a plan to attach 12 panel antennas atop St. Luke Lutheran Church.

The application states that the antennas would "be concealed within a faux chimney" to
be constructed alongside an already existing faux chimney that T-Mobile constructed to conceal their antennas to match the existing chimney at the church.

The plans provided with the application show that the height of the tower was to be approximately 25 feet above the top of the church roof. The application was recommended by a county official on the condition that the generator operate in compliance with the county's noise ordinance.

"Based on our site visit, although the impact of a second antenna enclosure atop the church, may be minimal because it is disguised as a chimney, it will likely be more visible to passersby along Colesville Road and Dale Drive," the application states. "A building height of 50 [feet] is required in a residential zone to permit attachment of antennas according to the zoning code. However, we understand from past applications, [Department of Permitting Services] would permit this facility because the antennas will be concealed."

According to Sandri, churches are popular sites to house cell phone tower antennas because their steeples, bell towers and spires provide excellent height for signal coverage, they are often centrally located, and leasing space generates revenue — as much as $1,000 to $3,000 per month or more in some cases — for the church.

He pointed to a number of similar cases at other churches in recent years, including Epiphany Lutheran Church in Lake Worth, Florida, which attracted media attention in 2009 after it fashioned a 100-foot-tall cross made out of cell phone tower antennas in exchange for about $1,800 in rent from T-Mobile every month.

Sandri said a common method used by churches to conceal the installations is to place them inside existing steeples or bell towers or, like Epiphany Lutheran Church, to build the antennas into the shape of a Christian cross.

In 2021, the EHT and Children's Health Defense took the FCC to court over its refusal to update 1996 cell phone and wireless safety limits, a case in which Sandri filed a “friend of the court” brief. The landmark lawsuit ultimately forced the FCC to increase its transparency on non-cancer health effects linked to wireless radiation.

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