Qatar to get a second church

Friday, 25th April 2008
By: George Conger

Ground-breaking for Qatar’s second purpose-built Christian church will take place next month, the Anglican chaplain of Doha, the Rev Canon Bill Schwartz, reports.

Built on land donated by Emir Amir Hamad bin Al Thani, the Church of the Epiphany will house all of Qatar’s Protestant Christians. On March 15 over 15,000 people attended the first mass at Qatar’s first Roman Catholic Church, Our Lady of the Rosary. Christians account for approximately 10 per cent of Qatar’s 800,000 residents --- almost all of whom are foreign workers from the Philippines and India.

While public Christian worship has been held in the Persian Gulf country for almost 80 years, the two new buildings are the first purpose-built Christian churches in the emirate in the modern era. the rest