Beautiful Catholic Church of St. Paul in Abu Dhabi, UAE

The United Arab Emirates recognizes the Supremacy of the Catholic Church as First among all Christian churches, both historically and biblically, granting her with utmost rights and privileges and allow its adherents from different countries working as overseas workers, to worship and give glory to the One God we all pray and give our supreme praise. 

In 2007 the Holy See (Vatican State) and the United Arab Emirates signs its "bonds of mutual friendship" sealing a diplomatic ties between the two states.  With the Holy See's efforts, other Christian churches benefited from it with more freedom and tolerance to worship as they please. -CD2000

The St. Paul's Church is a religious building affiliated with the Catholic Church which is located in the area of Mussafah in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. Its importance is that it is the second Catholic church to be built in the emirate since 1965 when the St. Joseph Cathedral was built. Its history dates back to November 2011 when the municipality granted land in the industrial area of Mussafah, after a work of 18 months of consultation. That same year the first stone of the temple was laid. It was inaugurated and blessed with the presence of local authorities as the Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and religious (Cardinal Pietro Parolin) in June 2015. -Wikipeda

Mga Kaanib ng Iglesia ni Cristo sa UAE, may mga lokal na!

Buhay na buhay po ang Iglesiang tatag ni Cristo - ang Iglesia Katolika sa Gitnang Silangan lalo na sa United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sa katunayan, napaulat pa sa ibabang artikulo na hindi lang mga expats ang mga Kristianong nagsisimba sa mga Simbahan kundi may mga LOKAL na rin pong mga kaanib.  Opo, mga LOKAL pong mga kaanib kaya't marapat lamang sabihin na ang TUNAY na Iglesia ni Cristo - ay may lokal na sa UAE. Purihin ang Panginoong Hesus, Diyos na totoo at Tagapagligtas!

Overflowing Church In Middle East Proves Christianity Is Alive

Source: JOSEPH EID / Getty Images

[Source: AtlantaDailyWorld] Christanity is not dead in the middle east. One place that is showing this is Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Pew Research Center numbers Christians in the Arabian Peninsula at 2.3 million—more Christians than nearly 100 countries can claim. The Gulf Christian Fellowship, an umbrella group, estimates 3.5 million. Foreigners now make up more than 70 percent of the more than 4 million inhabitants, coming from other Arab countries, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines. More than half of these foreign workers are Christians. Adding up the figures, Christians account for more than 35 percent of the population of the United Arab Emirates. Around a million of them are Catholic. And it’s not only in the UAE – in Saudi Arabia, too, it is estimated that there are already about a million Catholics from the Philippines.

One of the things proving that ministry is growing is the creation of a new church. Located in Mussafah, a satellite town of Abu Dhabi, St. Paul parish overflowed with 5,000 Christian worshippers gathering for the Thanksgiving Mass, far more than its 1,200-capacity. It is set to cater to the 60,000 to 70,000 Christians working and living in the surrounding area, many of whom are migrant workers from Africa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Some local Arabs have also joined in.

Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE’s minister for culture, youth, and community development, said the opening of the church—the second in Dubai after St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the center of the city—underlines the religious tolerance of religious leaders. He lauded Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the previous president and father of the current president, for his wisdom, courage, prudence, temperance, loyalty, justice, and generosity.

Mubarak Al Nahyan says:

‘Our leadership knows its true wealth and accepts the obligation to respect and understand the many religious beliefs of the people living in this country. I believe that each of you can provide evidence that the leaders of the UAE are fulfilling that obligation.’

In the history of Christianity, both the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul had long intense missions in the middle east. The former founded the church of Antioch. St. Paul’s great mission to the gentiles began at Antioch, where the term “Christians” came to life to denote the followers of Christ. The name was first heard for the first time here. The apostle St. Thomas brought Christianity to Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and the three main Iraqi denominations—Chaldean, Assyrian, and Orthodox—still survive from that early period. The Chaldean and Assyrian churches use Syriac in their respective liturgies, a tongue close to Aramaic, which Jesus is said to have spoken.

Buhay na buhay ang Tunay na Iglesia ni Cristo sa Gitnang Silangan. Kumusta naman ang inyong sekta?

St. Joseph's Parish Centre inaugurated by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan, Culture Minister, UAE

Abu Dhabi [News Karnataka]: The newly constructed St. Joseph’s Parish Centre was inaugurated by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development at a ceremony held on October 9th at 7.30 p.m. The event was also attended by H.E. Ali Al Hashimi, Religious Consellor at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and a few other government officials of Abu Dhabi.

At the invitation of H.E. Bishop Paul Hinder (OFM Cap), Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, present on the occasion were H.E. Archbishop Petar Rajic, Apostolic Nuncio to the Arabian Peninsula and H.E. Bishop Camillo Ballin, Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia. Also present were Fr. Savarimuthu, Parish Priest of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Abu Dhabi, all the Assitant priests and a host of priests from various parishes of the United Arab Emirates.

Dignitaries arrived at the venue at 7.30pm. The compere, Roydon D'mello welcomed the congregation present and invited the Chief Guest, H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan to open the centre by cutting the red ribbon on the main door. Upon declaring open the new structure, the guests walked into the Parish Hall along with the representatives of the Consultant and Contracting firms who were instrumental in erecting the remarkable new building as the Choir sang ‘This is the day that the Lord has made’.

John Conrad, the Vice President of the Parish Council invited the guests and the congregation saying this is a ‘Dream come true’ venture of many parishioners. He also attributed the success of the event amid laud applauds from the congregation to the Late President H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan who was the founder of this dream of the Catholic faithful and current President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan who supported the venture.

Mementos were then given to H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and H.E. Ali Al Hashimi by Bishop Paul Hinder. Flower bouquets were also presented to all the dignitaries. Addressing the guests, Bishop Paul Hinder expressed his gratitude to the President of UAE, all the government officials, the Municipal authorities for granting necessary permission and ensuring that the venture reached its completion without any hindrance.

Speaking on the occasion, H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan said that he is glad to have the Cathedral of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia at Abu Dhabi. He also elaborated the policy of the UAE to respect the expatriate communities of different faiths. He encouraged the Catholic Community to continue to support the UAE in its effort to build a Global nation living in harmony while achieving economic growth.

Archbishop Petar Rajic presented Mementos to the representatives of the Consultant, Mr. Suhail and the Contractor, Mr. Hakim Saadi.

Speaking on the occasion, Fr. Savarimuthu expressed his special thanks to the bishop, Paul Hinder for all the support extended to this project. He also thanked the members of the Construction Committee for their commitment and whole hearted support. He made a special mention of the enormous contribution of Fr. Eugene Mattioli, who served the Abu Dhabi parish for seventeen and a half year to build up a strong Catholic Community.

The dignitaries then were taken for a tour of the new building as the parishioners continued exchanging greetings on the occasion as the choir sang, ‘Give thanks to the Holy One’. This day will be written in the history of Catholic faith of the Arabian Peninsula with golden letters as a remarkable landmark achieved both in terms of faith and fraternity of various religions.