Anglicans in the Middle East

May 26, 2016 by

My first exposure to St Andrew’s Church in Abu Dhabi for the Sunday morning service was in May when I attended a consultation in the country.

Chris Sugden Evangelicals Now June 2016
Figure Image
After the Friday service at Holy Trinity Dubai

A Nigerian non-stipendiary minister whose wife worked in the oil and gas industry led the service. We were 13 in all, from the UK, Philippines, North America and South Asia and met over coffee after the service.

Day of worship

The day of worship poses a real question: should Christians in a Muslim state worship on Sunday to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection, or on Friday when people have the day off? Or does the latter allow the majority community to dictate the day of worship for Christians along with other requirements that demonstrate their power over them?

Certainly people from every tribe and tongue meet as Christians in the Middle East. One international fellowship in Dubai, held in English, welcomes over 2000 people for its Friday service from a multitude of countries.

On the following Friday I joined around 350 Urdu speakers from Pakistan at the weekly Communion service at Holy Trinity Dubai. Most are guest workers on two-year contracts and visas which have to be renewed. I met the owner of a building maintenance company and a person working for an estate agency. Both were earning money to send back to their wives and children in Pakistan. 70% of Dubai’s population is male, and 54% live in dormitory-style accommodation in labour camps.

Operation Mobilisation

Holy Trinity Dubai is part of the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf and they have their own bishop for the Urdu congregations, Bishop Azad Marshall, based at St Thomas Centre, Lahore. He began his ministry with Operation Mobilisation (OM), a significant movement among students that emerged in the ’60s and ’70s.

Those who went with OM to Turkey in those years sowed the seeds of what is now a Protestant community in Turkey of around 5000 people. The Anglican Turkish congregation in Istanbul, which is part of the Diocese of Europe in the Church of England, used to meet in a building that was previously the chapel of the Swedish embassy.

There is a similar history to the beginnings of the first Anglican congregation in Jerusalem in the 19th century, when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. A British embassy was opened and the British Government insisted that the ambassador needed a chapel. The subsequent building is larger than the embassy and is now the home to Christ Church Jerusalem, with a welcoming hostel and tour business based there.

From ten to one

The Turkish Anglicans have made applications for ten new church buildings as they want to spread throughout Istanbul and Turkey, but have been granted permission for only one of them. This raises the question of whether embassies from countries with a strong Christian presence such as Nigeria, South Korea and the Philippines could be asked for facilities for Christian worship in their embassy compounds. The downside of this is that it would link Christians with foreign powers. Turkey remembers when after the First World War, which brought the Ottoman Empire to an end, the victorious allies carved the country up between them. This ended when Turkey proclaimed its independence in 1923.

However, could there be a role for chaplaincies to be linked to embassies, who could have a role in monitoring religious freedom for all groups in states with nationalistic religions?

With vast areas of land, petrol less than 40 pence a litre, and no income tax, the sky seems to be the limit for builders and architects and other guest workers in this part of the world. It is reported that violent Islam is turning young people away from religion to atheism. A gay pride festival was held in Beirut last year. Where will young people in the region find their identity and their home among the overwhelming presence of super-rich wealth?

Anglican Christians in Egypt report that a new opportunity for questioning has emerged since the Arab Spring. It has opened the door for ‘coffee-shop culture’ where Alpha-style discussions of Christian faith, based on meals and hospitality, can take place. More people of other faiths have attended the Alpha Marriage courses in Egypt than Christians.

Few they may be, but Christians in the Middle East, drawn together from scores of different races and cultures, have an important witness to bear in this vibrant and changing part of the world.

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