Religions Complex in Doha

We have now attended the Anglican Center’s worship services twice. We are impressed by the determination of so many people to attend worship, braving arcane traffic patterns and crowds and security scanners and very long walks in unshaded sunny heat. What is officially marked as “Religions Complex” but unofficially called Religion City is the square mile reserved for all non-Muslim religions to build their houses of worship. The Anglican Center serves the Protestant community, with over 30 different groups worshiping in various parts of the building throughout the weekend. One neighboring building houses the Indian Inter-Denominational Christian Church (the several branches of the ancient Keralan orthodox church), while the largest building is the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. Probably the two largest expatriate groups in Qatar are from India and the Philippines. Within the same complex are also Coptic and Greek and Syrian Orthodox churches. It does seem ironic that the local police last summer drastically tightened security, making it quite a chore to get to church, with no vehicles and only 2 pedestrian entrances, with Xray scanners and metal detectors and anti-tank barriers. That certainly appears discouraging, and yet thousands of people politely and eagerly flock there on Fridays, overflowing the large parking lot. In the midst of a severely Islamic country, the expatriates are determined to gather together to exercise their right to distinctive worship.

The Anglican service is a delightful mixture of old (robes, procession, communion rail) and new (praise hymns, varied responses). That worshipping community is the most amazingly diverse we have ever seen -- US, Canadian, English, Australian, South African, Nigerian, Kenyan, Jamaican, Asian. At this service a baby was baptized with the liturgy partially in Maori, and a choir sang the offertory hymn in Swahili. We like the group, though we plan to visit other (more specifically American) protestant services in the next few weeks as well.

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