The first Anglican church in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) will be consecrated at the new church complex ”” which can accommodate up to 2,000 people at one time ”” in Al Jazeera Al Hamra on March 9.
Bishop Michael Lewis, Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, will facilitate the consecration and open the church and its facilities to the public.
The new church is built on a 5,600-square-metre land given by His Highness Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah. It is the fifth and northernmost church under the Chaplaincy of Dubai and Sharjah.
Well it may not be Saudi Arabia, but I hope we can all agree that this is a significant step (akin to the recent Turkish pledge to offer compensation to Christian communities for historic deprivation of buildings).
There is a long history of friendship and respect between Britain and the Gulf States, and indeed the Arabs, dating back to the help given with their liberation from the Turks around the first world war, the British influence in the former Trucial States and Bahrain, and the cooperation in oil extraction. More recently there is the cooperation with the US and allies in the liberation of Kuwait.
People are inclined to take their view of Muslims from the non-Arab [and to Arabs second-class] converts in Iran, Pakistan and other places. The superiority of Arabs comes from their status as the original Muslims and in the case of particularly the Saudis, as the guardian of the holy places of Islam: Mecca, Medina and to some extent Jerusalem. The Iranians have long had ambitions in the Gulf, so the Gulf Arabs view them with a mixture of fear and contempt.
In the Gulf, there has been a long history of toleration of both Christians and Jews [the later not surviving the conflicts in Palestine from 1967], but this is only the latest of the signs of respect for Christians, and on occasion great kindness to Christians [including a new church in Qatar]; provided we do not prosyletise Muslims.
And therein lies the rub! Mission in Arab countries has to center around showing kindness in return – running schools and clinics, healthcare and education and helping seamen marooned in those countries. Often this sort of mission is very effective. As many including Ghandi have said, if Christians behaved like Christ, we would spread over the world