A new church to be built in Abu Dhabi will provide a spiritual home for generations of Indian worshippers.
Construction will soon begin on the Church of South India, serving members of the Protestant branch of Christianity, with a foundation stone ceremony to be held this weekend.
The church will be located in the Abu Mureikha area of the capital, near the plot of a Hindu temple that is being built.
With tall, narrow windows and an arched doorway, the architecture of the place of worship will blend Islamic design elements.
More than four acres of land for the church was granted by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
“This is a blessing to our community and is a mark of tolerance of this nation,” said Reverend Sojee Vergis John.
“It is yet another milestone of the religious freedom in this country. We will now have the ability to properly serve our community.”
More than 750 parishioners in Abu Dhabi, mainly from Kerala state in southern India, will finally have their own place of worship after 40 years.
They congregate weekly at the St Andrew’s Church for two-hour prayer services on Friday and on Sunday for Bible studies.
The estimated Dh9 million cost will be sourced from donations from followers and well-wishers in the UAE. The plot in Abu Dhabi will be the second shrine for the Church of South India, with one already in Fujairah.
From a small community of 50 people in 1979, the church has grown to about 6,000 members across the country.
Its followers in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah pray in Anglican churches in the Emirates.
Due to the large number of parishioners and numerous congregations, worshippers usually hold gatherings in community halls and shrines of the larger churches.
There is a spirit of brotherhood, fellowship and acceptance in the UAE
Plans for the church show earthy tones of beige and white on the exterior with an octagon-shaped roof and a skylight that allows the sun’s rays to filter across the large prayer hall within.
Approvals for construction are being sought and the work is expected to take about a year with plans to open for worship in early 2021.
It will also include halls for other congregations to gather much like the space it has shared over the past four decades in St Andrew’s Church, the country’s oldest Anglican shrine.
“There is a spirit of brotherhood, fellowship and acceptance in the UAE,” said Reverend John.
“This makes it an example of harmony and peace and a moral for the world’s religions.”
The church was among 18 non-Muslim places of worship that received official status and licences as part of a Department of Community Development initiative in September.
Many churches have been in existence in the Emirates for decades, with some given land by Sheikh Zayed, the nation’s Founding Father.
The Church of South India was among five new places of worship officially registered in September.
A ceremony to bless the foundation stone will be held on Friday evening at St Andrew’s Church in the presence of hundreds of parishioners and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the UAE’s Minister of Tolerance, and senior government officials.
The foundation stone laying ceremony will be conducted on Saturday morning on the new plot of land off the main Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway.
The Church of South India is the second largest Christian church in India after the Catholic Church and has more than four million followers worldwide.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Who is Tim-Berners Lee?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Fund-raising tips for start-ups
Develop an innovative business concept
Have the ability to differentiate yourself from competitors
Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
Prepare for the worst-case scenario (further lockdowns, long wait for a vaccine, etc.)
Have enough cash to stay afloat for the next 12 to 18 months
Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses
Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business
* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
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