Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Russian Orthodoxy in the UAE


The original can be found here. H/T Antiochians in Nice.


The Church of St. Phillip in Sharjah

The Church of St. Phillip in the emirate Sharjah of the UAE is the first church representing [Russian] Orthodoxy in the Arabian Peninsula. The decision to build it was adopted in 2005 when the current Patriarch of Moscow Kyrill and all Russia visited the Emirates as the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.

On December 9, 2007 the cornerstone for the Church of St. Phillip was laid in the neighborhood of al-Yarmouk in the Emirate of Sharjah, which is a neighborhood that contains a number of churches and places of worship which serve various communities residing in the emirate.

The church was given the name of St. Phillip in honor of Phillip Timona [??], the first Russian priest to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula.

For footage of the partially-completed, 1800m2 church and the Paschal liturgy that took place there this week, see here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i like it so much ! i hope u come here one day and prey !!

Collator said...

Not to be overly political, but under whose jurisdiction does this church fall? Moscow, since it was founded by (for?) Russians? Antioch or Jerusalem, since it is within their jurisdiction? Or Constantinople, since the whole world supposedly belongs to it? :-)

Samn! said...

The Gulf countries other than Iraq and Kuwait are generally speaking under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, however this may be canonically a representational church. Not sure.