First church, last rest

First church opens in Qatar

DOHA (AFP) — Christians in Qatar opened their first church on Friday, joining fellow believers in most other Gulf Arab states who have long been able to worship in churches rather than homes and other venues.

An inauguration event was held for St Mary's Roman Catholic church in Doha, the first of five that will be built in Qatar.

The opening of the church was attended by high-ranking diplomats, Catholic religious leaders and Qatar's minister of energy and industry, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.

"The church will send a positive message to the world," Attiyah told reporters.

The secretary of the Anglican church in neighbouring Bahrain, Yussef Haidar, boasts that the tiny state "hosts the first church of the Gulf region, founded in 1906 by American Anglican missionaries".

It’s all here …

Praise for Qatar as first church is consecrated
Gulf Times
15 March, 2008
By Ramesh Mathew

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah yesterday highlighted the importance of co-existence of people belonging to different faiths in every society.

Such an atmosphere would contribute to peace, harmony, development and help improve not only person-to-person relations but also those between different faiths, HE al-Attiyah said at a gathering held on the eve of the consecration of the country’s first church, The Catholic Church of the Lady of Rosary at Mesaimeer, yesterday.

The first Holy Mass at the newly-built church will be held at 10 am today. 

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Qatar opens first church, quietly          
By Shabina S. Khatri
Al Jazeera

When Regina Setiadi moved from Indonesia to the Gulf last year, she left her Bible, crucifix and rosary behind.

"I never think that here in [the] Middle East there's a church," the 37-year-old Catholic, who now lives in Doha, Qatar, told Al Jazeera. "I thought we have to pray secretly at home."

Or in schools. Or rented halls.

But now, after decades of worshipping in borrowed spaces, Qatar's growing Christian community is celebrating - albeit quietly - the opening of the country's first church since pre-Islamic times.

It’s all here …

Christian cemeteries tell sad story of crowding and neglect
By Marten Youssef
Gulf News
March 15, 2008

Dubai: Rows of crosses are sunk in the sand, adorned with prayer beads and names of those who lie beneath them. A zigzag of unevenly-laid bricks makes a path through nearly a hundred graves, each with a story that ended too early and was sometimes left untold.

Candles and rusted lanterns sit at the foot of some of these graves. Letters and sun-beaten flowers are left to wither in the deserts. Toys and shoes are neatly placed on many of these tombs. A Snickers chocolate bar that was likely moved by the wind sits inches away from a child's grave.

This is the Dubai Christian cemetery, guarded with four white crosses, a rusted metal gate and a brick wall. Surrounded by sun-baked sand, the cemetery is one of three sites for Christians to be buried. It's a mile from the Jebel Ali exit, an off-road plot that has no sign of human life.

It’s all here …