Groundbreaking for the Evangelical Churches Alliance Qatar worship centre took place in January.
Last fall I met Bishop Beda Robles at the Lausanne 4 Congress in Korea.
He told me about the surprising strength of the church in Doha, Qatar – a small nation on the Arabian Peninsula – and of his hopes for a major church building for evangelical Christians.
(I wrote about that here.)
Those hopes are now being realized, as demonstrated by this release posted on the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) site.
The Evangelical Churches Alliance Qatar (ECAQ) is grateful to have concluded the groundbreaking ceremony for their worship centre, January 24.
The worship centre will house worship halls, a bookstore, a coffee shop and spaces for weddings and events to generate revenue.
Recognising the collaborative relationships that enabled this to happen, key guests to this event included Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi from the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue, Her-Excellency Mariam Nasser Al Hail, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State of Qatar, and dignitaries.
Rev. Samuel Chiang, WEA Deputy Secretary General represented the broader evangelical community in this time of celebration. In the speech of Rev. Chiang, he mentioned the ceremony “as a milestone of our collective faith as well as God’s unwavering faithfulness and provision. . . . The building of the worship centre is more than architectural, it is a spiritual act of worship, a manifestation of our faith in the God who calls us to both envision and enact His kingdom on earth.”
This piece of land is found within the religious complex with eight other Christian groups. Initially granted a hectare of land by the Qatari government in 2015 after prayer and lobbying for seven years prior, it was taken back by the government due to the strategic nature of the land.
This led to another season of ECAQ appealing for another plot of land which was eventually awarded in November 2023 shortly after the visit of [Thomas Schirrmacher] Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This plot of land was twice as big with the new church building costing considerably more.
The ECAQ is a united network of multi-national expatriate communities of evangelical churches in the State of Qatar, called to live and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are a ministry of many tongues and tribes, a diaspora of Christian believers with purposeful work-based migration for the glory of God. The president of ECAQ, Bishop Beda Robles is also a practicing professional architect.
Bishop Beda Robles (left) with Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of World Evangelical Alliance (since retired) and Dr. Ibrahim Al Nuaimi, Chair of Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue in 2023. Image from ECAQ site.
Since the discovery of oil and natural gas and the subsequent economic boom in Qatar, there has been an influx of international workers to Qatar.
According to the 2024 population report, expatriates in Qatar make up approximately 88.4 percent of the population. Of the expatriate population, about 15.4 percent are Christians, mainly made up of diverse mix of Asian, European, Africans, North and South American foreign workers.
At ECAQ, there is a growing number of member-congregations, the majority of which are Filipino. There are Africans, Indians, South Africans, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, Indonesians, Arabic Christians, and Korean churches, with a combined estimate of 17,056 individual believers of the Lord Jesus Christ in September 2024. They are actively fundraising for the worship centre.
In reflecting on this event, Bishop Beda, the chairman and founding member of ECAQ mentioned that his prayer is:
May our loving Jesus be glorified and known by the whole world! May Our God of heaven himself prosper and give us success as we His people (Evangelical) arise and build this project together (John 17:20-21). All for His glory and honor and for the future of the Gospel in furtherance of His Kingdom in the Muslim world.