Catching up on the history of the churches in Oman, from Biblical times to dialogue and a new Anglican church

Farewell to Muscat … without visiting any of the religious centres (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

My brief and furtive passages through Muscat Airport early on Friday morning and two weeks earlier left me with no time to consider the long history of the Christian presence in Oman. But in sleepless bouts brought about by jet lag in the last two days, I have been catching up on some of the stories, form Biblical times to a late 19th century Anglican missionary bishop, Oman’s role in advancing Christian-Muslim dialogue and peace-making in the Gulf region and Middle East, and the emergence of a new Anglican church in Muscat.

Christian churches in Oman are mainly found in the Muscat area, Sohar, and Salalah, meeting the needs of a large expatriate population. The major denominations include Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and various Protestant and evangelical groups.

Islam is the official state religion, and Article 28 of the constitution limits freedom of religious practices to the boundaries of Islamic law and proselytising in public is forbidden. Instruction in Islam is compulsory in public schools, but people who are legally non-Muslims are exempted from this.

Christianity is the religion of 3.63% of the population of Oman, with about 90 Christian congregations. Almost all Christians there are from other countries, including the Philippines, India and some Western countries.

Oman can claim to be one of the Biblical lands: Job’s tomb is claimed to be in Oman, although it is one of three places that claim to be his burial place; the Queen of Sheba, who brought spices to King Solomon (see I Kings 10), held territories in what is now south Oman; and the gifts brough to the Christ Child by the Magi may have been from the region, such as frankincense and myrrh found in the Dhofar. Later, it is said, the Apostle Thomas brought Christianity to the shores of Oman on his way to India.

The Chronicle of Arbela, which may date from the mid-sixth century, tells of a diocese at Bet Mazunaye, an area that included Oman. The Bishop of Sohar or Beit Mazunayeh attended synods in the years 424, 544, 576 and 676 CE.

There are few official records of Christianity in Oman from that time until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1504. Portugal occupied from 1507 to 1650 and the ruins of what is thought to have been a church have been found in Suhar.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in Ruwi is the oldest Catholic church in Muscat

The Roman Catholic Vicariate, the Anglican Church, the Protestant Church of Oman, and the al Amana Centre are among the recognised religious bodies in Oman, and there is a Christian cemetery in Muscat.

Roman Catholics, who number 138,000 in Oman, make up almost 70% of all Christians in the sultanate. They are part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Soth Arabia, with four parishes in Oman – Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church and Holy Spirit Church in Muscat, Saint Anthony’s Church, Sohar, and Saint Francis Xavier Church, Salalah. Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in Ruwi, the oldest Catholic church is in Muscat, was built in 1977. Most Catholics in Oman are from India and the Philippines, as well as some from Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Eastern Orthodox Christians in Oman are part of the Archdiocese of Baghdad, Kuwait and Dependencies and of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. There are 24,000 Orthodox Christians in Oman, accounting for 12.5 per cent of Christians in the country The first Orthodox church in Oman, Saint Constantine and Saint Helen, was built in Muscat in 2019.

Bishop Thomas Valpy French died three months after arriving in Muscat in 1891

For Anglicans, Oman is part of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf in the Anglican or Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Anglican presence in Oman dates back to Bishop Thomas Valpy French (1825-1891), who became the first Bishop of Lahore in 1877, and who moved to Muscat in 1891 shortly before he died.

Thomas Valpy French was born in the Abbey, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, on 1 January 1825, a son of the Revd Peter French, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Burton upon Trent, for 47 years, and was educated at University College, Oxford (BA 1846, MA 1849; Fellow 1848-1853)

French joined the Church Mission Society (CMS) in 1850 and was sent to Agra in India, where he founded Saint John’s College. French learnt seven languages, including Hindustani, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian, Pashto and Arabic, and moved to the Punjab in 1861, but ill-health forced him to return for England in 1862. He was consecrated the first Bishop of Lahore in 1877 and remained there until 1887. He founded the Lahore Divinity College, supervised the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Hindustani and Pashto, and visited Kashmir and Iran before returning to England in 1887, once again due to ill health.

French insisted all must be equally welcome and respected within a house of worship, with no differences defined by race ot station, or between individuals in ‘a House of Prayer for all people.’ French arrived in Muscat on his final missionary journey on 8 February 1891 and was the first missionary to visit the region. He had just started setting up his work there when his health started failing. He was cared for by Portuguese Catholic missionaries until he died on 14 May 1891 in Muscat, and he was buried in a Christian cemetery.

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury has described French as a personal hero. He has said that while French ‘seems to have made no converts’ during his final years in the Middle East, he was not there primarily to make converts but out of ‘the desire to be where Jesus was … to be in the company of Jesus Christ.’

Bait al Noor church in Ruwi, Muscat, is part of the Protestant Church in Oman

Two years after French’s death, missionaries from the New Jersey-based Arabian Mission opened a mission station in Muscat in November 1893. Peter Zwemer (1868-1898), a younger brother of Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952), one of the founders of the Arabian Mission, arrived in Muscat in 1893 and died in 1898.

The mission set up schools, medical facilities with missionary doctors and a printing press in Muscat. For much of its history the primary focus of the mission was the Arabic church, but with the advent of oil the English-language congregation become the main focus.

The Protestant Church in Oman was supported by the Reformed Church in America and became a partnership between the RCA and the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, with both traditions appointing pastors and supporting what has become a multidenominational, multicultural and multinational church.

The PCO that has provided an umbrella group for a number of churches and traditions, with two campuses in Muscat, Ruwi and Ghala, and one in Salalah in the south and Sohar in the north. There are English, Arabic, Tagalog (Filipino) and Korean congregations. The PCO also oversees or sponsors more than 60 congregations in Ruwi and Ghala, and 21 denominations in Oman all come under its umbrella.

Al Amana Centre is one of the few Christian-led organisations in the Muslim-majority world working toward sustainable peace. It has been cultivating dialogue and deep understanding in Oman for over130 years. The centre’s roots are in the work of the Reformed Church in America and it works to foster peace and deeper mutual understanding between all people of faith.

Inside the Anglican Church of Saint John, Muscat

Prince Charles (now King Charles III) was a guest at a service in Bait al Noor church (House of Light) in Ruwi, Muscat, in 2016 to mark the 125th anniversary of the final missionary journey of Bishop Thomas Valpy French. Recent Anglican clergy in Oman have included Alan Gates (1978-1980), John Hall (1980-1982), Daniel Lloyd (1982-1984), Richard Boulter (1984-1986), Ray Skinner (1987-1989), Robert Fieldson (1990-1995), Gerard Storey (1995-1999), John Aldis (2000-2001), Mike Clarkson (2004-2006), Ruth Lichtenberger (2005-2007), Benjamin Chase (2006-2007) and Chris Howitz.

Until the end of January 2023, the Revd Chris Howitz, like Anglican priests in Oman before him, worked under the local auspices of the PCO. The Church of Saint John, Muscat, emerged with reconfiguring the Anglican presence in Oman and an opportunity for a fresh start. The new Church of Saint John was celebrated at the Eucharist on 13 April 2023, attended by Archbishop Michael Lewis and about 100 people, including people who have continued with the PCO, representatives of the RCA and staff of the Al Amana Centre.

Bishop Sean Semple of Cyprus visited Saint John’s Church, Muscat, at the end of last year (13 November 2025 ). He met officials of Oman’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the PCO and thanked them for the partnerships with the Anglican Church in Muscat.

• The Prayer Diary of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf today (8 March 2026) invites prayers for ‘the Provinces of the whole Anglican Communion, their people, and Primates’ and for ‘St John’s, Muscat, Oman’.

The Revd Chris Howitz and the Church of Saint John, Muscat

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 18, Saturday 7 March 2026

Minarets and church domes on the skyline in Rethymnon in Crete … the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important aid in the Christian-Muslim dialogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began over two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2025), and tomorrow is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III). The Church Calendar today remembers Perpetua, Felicity and their Companions (203), Martyrs at Carthage.

I am back in Stony Stratford after two weeks in Kuching and a long and arduous journey that took me through Oman in the Gulf on Thursday and Friday. Later this morning, I hope to drop in to Το Στεκι Μας, Our Place, the pop-up Greek café which opens every first Saturday of the month at the Swinfen Harris Church Hall beside the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, between 10:30 am and 3 pm. Later in the day I hope to find somewhere appropriate to watch this afternoon's Six Nations rugby matches between Scotland and France (14:10) and England and Italy (16:20).

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son depicted in a window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 (NRSVA):

1 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable:

11 … ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22 But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31 Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found”.’

The Church of the Annunciation in Kaş in southern Turkey was converted into the Yeni Cami or New Mosque in 1963 … how does the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the Lectionary (Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32) is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one of the best-known parables, even among people who seldom go to church, and it is one of the parables that are unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.

I have spent two weeks in Kuching, where I was woken each morning by the bells of Saint Thomas’s Cathedral and the call to prayer from neighbouring mosques, and my journey back to England has brought me back through Muscat and the Middle East. During these weeks, both in Malaysia and in Oman, I have conscious of the way in which Lent and Ramadan overlap for Christians and Muslims this year. This morning I am also reminded this morning of a course on Muslim-Christian dialogue I did over 30 years ago, back in 1995, when how I learned how the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important resource in this dialogue.

At the time, I was the newly-appointed Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times, and I was writing a number of features on Islam and on Muslim-Christian dialogue. I realised I needed to ‘upskill’ myself in these areas, building on my theological education, and the editor, Conor Brady suggested I identify some short courses that could equip me in these fields.

I took two courses, one year after another. The first was a short residential course at CME level in the then Church of Ireland Theological College (now CITI) in Dublin in 1995, organised by my friend the Revd Declan Smith of the Church Mission Society (CMS), who died earlier this year (2 January 2026)`.

That course was delivered by the Revd Dr Colin Chapman, a British missiologist who specialises in Islamic studies. He worked in the Middle East for 18 years for CMS and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He taught in Cairo, Bethlehem and Beirut, where he was a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Near East School of Theology (1999-2003). He also taught at Trinity College, Bristol, and was the principal of Crowther Hall, the CMS college in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Colin Chapman’s publications include Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam (1988, 2007), Islam and the West (1998), Whose Promised Land?: the continuing conflict over Israel and Palestine (1983, 1992, 2002, 2015), Whose Holy City? Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004) and ‘Islamic Terrorism’: Is There a Christian Response?’ (2005).

His Cross and Crescent was submitted in conjunction with his thesis ‘Teaching Christians about Islam: a Study In Methodology’ at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak, at the Department of Theology in the University of Birmingham in September 1993, a year before I took his course in Dublin.

He was strongly influenced by the work of the American theologian Professor Kenneth Bailey (1930-2016), who also taught at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (1962-1985) and at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem.

On that course in Dublin, as throughout his work, Colin Chapman drew heavily on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which he finds unique in the context of Christian-Muslim dialogue. He finds it especially valuable as a story told by Jesus himself, because it presents the message of Jesus and as a story that can be told, elaborated, dramatised and discussed in ways that are culturally familiar within Middle East contexts.

Kenneth Bailey, in his study of the parables of Jesus, believes that the basic message of Jesus can be summed up as the costly demonstration of unexpected love, God’s yes to all people. Not only does he proclaim his love, but he actually defines and declares his love in action. As Colin Chapman interprets Kenneth Bailey’s writing, this demonstration of God’s unexpected love is costly for him, since in a sense he suffers in the process of forgiving.

Colin says the Parable of the Prodigal Son expresses all these points with special force. The father loves his sons – both the rebellious son who wants to leave home, and the older son who has such a cold and formal relationship with him. He goes on loving them, even when we might expect him to want to punish us and reject us. He demonstrates his love to both of them in ways that would have been considered surprising, if not shocking, in Middle East societies. And in demonstrating his love to them, the father suffers in the process.

Colin has summarised Bailey’s understanding of the significance of the Prodigal Son’s homecoming: ‘On his return, the prodigal is overwhelmed by an expected visible demonstration of love in humiliation. He is shattered by the offer of grace, confesses unworthiness, and accepts restoration to sonship in genuine humility. Sin is now a broken relationship which he cannot restore. Repentance is now understood as acceptance of grace and confession of unworthiness. The community rejoices together. The visible demonstration of love in humiliation is seen to have dear overtones of the atoning work of Christ.’

This parable comes from a culture that is similar to the culture of the Islamic world, Colin argues. The strong emphasis in Islam on the unity of the family and family loyalties and the fact that most of the Muslim world is in Africa and the Middle East should make it easy for Muslims to understand what is happening in the story, he suggests.

But the parable also raises question for Muslims, he points out. What Muslim could imagine a younger son asking for his share of the inheritance while his father is still alive? Should a father not punish his sons when they dishonour the name of the family? Has the elder brother got to swallow his pride and welcome home his younger brother who has disgraced himself?

The second course was a year later, in 1996, in the College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham. It was led by the Principal, the Revd Canon Dr Andrew Wingate, in association with USPG. That course in 1996 included Saint Patrick’s Day, and Andrew surprised me by asking me to preach at the Eucharist in his college chapel that Sunday.

CMS moved some of its training to Cowley, Oxford, in 2005 and closed Crowther Hall. The United College of the Ascension closed in 2006. Some of its work, and that of the Department of Mission, continues in the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, based in the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, an ecumenical theological foundation close to Birmingham University.

Later, Andrew Wingate was the founding director of Saint Philip’s Centre for Study and Engagement, Leicester, where I was involved in yet another a course in interfaith dialogue 2012. He continued to be available as a consultant and teacher in Inter-Faith Relations, and we continued to meet at USPG conferences and events.

I drew heavily on Colin Chapman’s work when I produced resources on Christian-Muslim dialogue for CMS and when I was a lecturer in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. Later, in semi-retirement in Milton, Cambridge, he assisted at All Saints’ Church. We met occasionally at Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge, when I was studying at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and staying ay Sidney Sussex College.

I have been a lifelong supporter of USPG, and I sometimes wondered whether some people in USPG saw me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I worked for CMS for four years (2002-2006), or did CMS see me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I subsequently joined the boards of USPG in Ireland and became a trustee of USPG?

The former College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham, where I studied Christian-Muslim dialogue in 1996 (click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 7 March 2026):

The theme this week (1-7 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been: ‘Saint David’s Day’ (pp 34-35). This theme was introduced last Sunday with Reflections by the Revd Sarah Rosser, Team Vicar in the Netherwent Ministry Area, Diocese of Monmouth, Church in Wales.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 7 March 2026) invites us to pray:

We pray for ourselves: help us to know your love, to listen for your call, and to live as salt and light in the world.

The Collect:

Holy God,
who gave great courage to Perpetua, Felicity and their companions:
grant that we may be worthy to climb the ladder of sacrifice
and be received into the garden of peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
who gave us this holy meal
in which we have celebrated the glory of the cross
and the victory of your martyrs Perpetua, Felicity and their companions:
by our communion with Christ
in his saving death and resurrection,
give us with all your saints the courage to conquer evil
and so to share the fruit of the tree of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent III:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Lent and Ramadan overlap for Christians and Muslims this year … a sign by the Floating Mosque in Kuching. Can the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A sculpture in Gordon Square recalls the Indian princess who was a spy in Paris and was murdered in Dachau

Noor Inayat Khan’s sculpture by Karen Newman in Gordon Square, near her childhood home in Bloomsbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was in Bloomsbury earlier this week, walking from Euston Station to Fitzrovia, Mayfair and Soho, I stopped in Gordon Square to see the bust commemorating the British-Indian agent Noor Inayat Khan, who worked in France during World War II and who was tortured and murdered by the Nazis in 1944, when she was only 30.

I had known of this sculpture before, but failed to find it the previous week when I was looking at the sculpture of the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Perhaps it is appropriate that the memorial to the special operations agent known as Madeleine is hidden away in the bushes, but I found her at lunchtime in the north-east corner of the gardens of Gordon Square.

The sculpture by Karen Newman was unveiled by Princess Anne in 2012 after a two-year campaign by Madeleine’s admirers to have the bust erected.

Noor was an Indian princess who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her work in France and for revealing nothing of use to her interrogators despite being tortured by the Gestapo for 10 months. She was murdered by the SS in Dachau concentration camp on 13 September 1944.

Noor Inayat Khan was also known as Nora Baker and as Madeleine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Madeleine was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the renowned ‘Tiger of Mysore’, who refused to submit to British rule and was killed in battle in 1799. Although she was born in Moscow, grew up in Bloomsbury, was a fluent French speaker and carried a British passport, she had no one particular national identity, but had a strong aversion to fascism.

Noor Khan grew up as a Sufi who believed in nonviolence and religious harmony, as an admirer of Indian independence leaders Nehru and Gandhi, and as a pacifist. Yet she joined Britain’s sabotage force, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and became the first female radio operator sent into France in 1943.

Noor Inayat Khan was born on 1 January 1914, in Moscow, the eldest of four children. Her father, Inayat Khan, was born in Baroda in India, and lived in Europe as a musician and a teacher of Sufism; her mother, Pirani Ameena Begum (born Ora Ray Baker), was an American from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Vilayat Khan later became head of the Sufi Order of the West, later the Sufi Order International, and now the Inayati Order.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the family left Russia and settled in Bloomsbury in London. The family moved to France in 1920, and lived in Suresnes near Paris.

Noor studied child psychology at the Sorbonne, and music at the Paris Conservatory. Her career as a writer began with publishing poetry and children’s stories in English. After Nazi Germany invaded France, the family fled back to Britain.

The memorial to the special operations agent known as Madeleine is hidden away in the bushes in the garden at Gordon Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Noor joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in November 1940 and later was recruited to the Special Operations Executive. She was sent to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, for special training as a wireless operator in occupied territory.

She was flown into Nazi-occupied France on 16/17 June 1943, with the instruction to ‘set Europe ablaze’. The assignment was seen as so dangerous that she arrived in Paris with a life expectancy of just six weeks.

Noor Khan was the last essential link with London after mass arrests by the Gestapo destroyed the SOE’s spy network in Paris. As her circuit collapsed, her commanders urged her to return to Britain, but she refused to abandon her French comrades without communications. For three months, she single-handedly ran a cell of agents across Paris, frequently changing her appearance and name until she was eventually captured.

She was betrayed to the Germans, arrested on 13 October 1943. After two attempts, she escaped on 25 November. She was taken to Germany on 27 November 1943 and was held in isolation for 10 months, shackled at her hands and feet. She was abruptly transferred to Dachau on 12 September 1944 and at dawn on the following morning she and three other women were executed by two SS men, one after another, by a shot through the back of the neck.

She was just 30. Her last word was reported as ‘Liberté.

Later, she was awarded the George Cross posthumously for exceptional bravery.

Noor Inayat Khan is the first woman of Asian background and the first Muslim woman with a stand-alone memorial in the UK (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Her sculpture in Gordon Square Gardens is on land owned by the University of London, close to the Bloomsbury house where Noor lived as a child in 1914 and where she returned while training for the SOE during World War II.

The inscription on the front of the plinth reads: ‘Noor Inayat Khan, 1914-1944, GC, MBE, Croix de Guerre. Unveiled by HRH The Princess Royal on 8 November 2012.’

The inscription on the right of the plinth says: ‘Noor Inayat Khan was an SOE agent infiltrated into occupied France. She was executed at Dachau Concentration Camp. Her last word was “Liberte”.’

On the left of the plinth, the inscription says: ‘Noor lived nearby and spent some quiet time in this garden.’

The back of the plinth explains: ‘The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret organisation set up by Winston Churchill to help resistance movements during WWII. Installed by the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust. Sculptor Karen Newman.’

Noor Khan’s childhood home at No 4 Taviton Street, near Gordon Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Noor Khan’s childhood home in Bloomsbury was at No 4 Taviton Street, near Gordon Square, and she returned there while she was training for the SOE. A blue plaque at 4 Taviton Street, was unveiled by English Heritage five years ago, on 28 August 2020.

Madeleine’s memorial in Gordon Square is all but hidden, tucked away inside the railings in the shady the north-east corner of the gardens, partly hidden by foliage. Somehow, this seemed appropriate to me on a sunny mid-week afternoon as she spent her last months working from the shadows.

This is the first stand-alone memorial to a woman of Asian background anywhere in the UK. It has been described as ‘one of the few anywhere in the world to a Muslim woman.’ It is a reminder of her values of nonviolence and harmony and the personal cost of making heroic sacrifices in the face of the evils of oppression and fascism. It is also a reminder of the contributions immigrants and refugees make to life and liberty in Britain and a challenge to the Islamophobic stereotyping of Muslims and Muslim women in Britain.

Her story is told by Shrabani Basu in her biography Spy Princess (2006) and by Arthur Magida in Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in Nazi-Occupied Paris (2020).

A blue plaque at Noor Khan’s childhood home at 4 Taviton Street, Bloomsbury, was unveiled by English Heritage on 28 August 2020 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Lent 2025: 18, Saturday 22 March 2025

Minarets and church domes on the skyline in Rethymnon in Crete … the Parable of the Prodigal Son is an important aid in the Christian-Muslim dialogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began over two weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025), and tomorrow is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son depicted in a panel in the East Window in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32 (NRSVA):

1 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable:

11 … ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’” 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22 But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31 Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found”.’

The Church of the Annunciation in Kaş in southern Turkey was converted into the Yeni Cami or New Mosque in 1963 … how does the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist in the Lectionary (Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32) is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one of the best-known parables, even among people who seldom go to church, and it is one of the parables that are unique to Saint Luke’s Gospel.

We are going to hear this parable again in the Gospel reading (Luke 15: 1–3, 11b–32) tomorrow week, on Lent IV or Mothering Sunday (30 March 2025). I shall reflect on this parable again that morning (see HERE). But this morning I am reminded how the Parable of the Prodigal Son was used in a course on Muslim-Christian dialogue I did 30 years ago, back in 1995.

At the time, I was the newly-appointed Foreign Desk Editor of The Irish Times, and I was writing a number of features on Islam and on Muslim-Christian dialogue. I realised I needed to ‘upskill’ myself in these areas, building on my theological education, and the editor, Conor Brady suggested I identify some short courses that could equip me in these fields.

I took two courses, one year after another. The first was a short residential course at CME level in the then Church of Ireland Theological College in Dublin in 1995, organised by the Revd Declan Smith of the Church Mission Society (CMS).

That course was delivered by the Revd Dr Colin Chapman, a British missiologist who specialises in Islamic studies. He worked in the Middle East for 18 years for CMS and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He taught in Cairo, Bethlehem and Beirut, where he was a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Near East School of Theology (1999-2003). He also taught at Trinity College, Bristol, and was the principal of Crowther Hall, the CMS college in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Colin Chapman’s publications include Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam (1988, 2007), Islam and the West (1998), Whose Promised Land?: the continuing conflict over Israel and Palestine (1983, 1992, 2002, 2015), Whose Holy City? Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004) and ‘Islamic Terrorism’: Is There a Christian Response?’ (2005).

His Cross and Crescent was submitted in conjunction with his thesis ‘Teaching Christians about Islam: a Study In Methodology’ at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak, at the Department of Theology in the University of Birmingham in September 1993, a year before I took his course in Dublin.

He was strongly influenced by the work of the American theologian Professor Kenneth Bailey (1930-2016), who also taught at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (1962-1985) and at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem.

On that course in Dublin, as throughout his work, Colin Chapman drew heavily on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which he finds unique in the context of Christian-Muslim dialogue. He finds it especially valuable as a story told by Jesus himself, because it presents the message of Jesus and as a story that can be told, elaborated, dramatised and discussed in ways that are culturally familiar within Middle East contexts.

Kenneth Bailey, in his study of the parables of Jesus, believes that the basic message of Jesus can be summed up as the costly demonstration of unexpected love, God’s yes to all people. Not only does he proclaim his love, but he actually defines and declares his love in action. As Colin Chapman interprets Kenneth Bailey’s writing, this demonstration of God’s unexpected love is costly for him, since in a sense he suffers in the process of forgiving.

Colin says the Parable of the Prodigal Son expresses all these points with special force. The father loves his sons – both the rebellious son who wants to leave home, and the older son who has such a cold and formal relationship with him. He goes on loving them, even when we might expect him to want to punish us and reject us. He demonstrates his love to both of them in ways that would have been considered surprising, if not shocking, in Middle East societies. And in demonstrating his love to them, the father suffers in the process.

Colin has summarised Bailey’s understanding of the significance of the Prodigal Son’s homecoming: ‘On his return, the prodigal is overwhelmed by an expected visible demonstration of love in humiliation. He is shattered by the offer of grace, confesses unworthiness, and accepts restoration to sonship in genuine humility. Sin is now a broken relationship which he cannot restore. Repentance is now understood as acceptance of grace and confession of unworthiness. The community rejoices together. The visible demonstration of love in humiliation is seen to have dear overtones of the atoning work of Christ.’

This parable comes from a culture that is similar to the culture of the Islamic world, Colin argues. The strong emphasis in Islam on the unity of the family and family loyalties and the fact that most of the Muslim world is in Africa and the Middle East should make it easy for Muslims to understand what is happening in the story, he suggests.

But the parable also raises question for Muslims, he points out. What Muslim could imagine a younger son asking for his share of the inheritance while his father is still alive? Should a father not punish his sons when they dishonour the name of the family? Has the elder brother got to swallow his pride and welcome home his younger brother who has disgraced himself?

The second course was a year later, in 1996, in the College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham. It was led by the Principal, the Revd Canon Dr Andrew Wingate, in association with USPG.

I was reminded earlier this week how that course in 1996 included Saint Patrick’s Day, and Andrew surprised me by asking me to preach at the Eucharist in his college chapel that Sunday.

CMS moved some of its training to Cowley, Oxford, in 2005 and closed Crowther Hall. The United College of the Ascension closed in 2006. Some of its work, and that of the Department of Mission, continues in the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies, based in the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, an ecumenical theological foundation close to Birmingham University.

Later, Andrew Wingate was the founding director of Saint Philip’s Centre for Study and Engagement, Leicester, where I was involved in yet another a course in 2012. He is now a consultant and teacher in Inter-Faith Relations, and we meet occasionally at USPG conferences and events.

I drew heavily on Colin Chapman’s work when I produced resources on Christian-Muslim dialogue for CMS and when I was a lecturer in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. He is now enjoying semi-retirement in Milton, Cambridge, where he sometimes assist at All Saints’ Church. We have met occasionally at Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge, when I have been studying at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies and staying ay Sidney Sussex College.

I have been a lifelong supporter of USPG, and I sometimes wondered whether some people in USPG saw me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I was worked for CMS for four years (2002-2006), or did CMS see me as a ‘Prodigal Son’ when I subsequently joined the boards of USPG in Ireland and became a trustee of USPG?

The former College of the Ascension in Selly Oak, Birmingham, where I studied Christian-Muslim dialogue in 1996 (click on image for full-screen viewing)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 22 March 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Truth: The Path to Reconciliation’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a programme update by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 22 March) invites us to pray:

Lord, bless the Anglican Church of Southern Africa as a beacon of hope and reconciliation, empowering them to advocate for justice and embody Christ’s love.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Almighty God,
you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves:
keep us both outwardly in our bodies,
and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all aersities
which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Lent III:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

A church in a provincial town in Egypt … can the Parable of the Prodigal Son assist Christian-Muslim dialogue? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The variety of temples and mosques illustrate the tolerance and diversity of Singapore

The Yueh Hai Ching Temple, one of the oldest Chinese temples in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

One of the enduring impressions of Singapore is its diversity and pluralism, with a variety of religious, ethnic and cultural communities and traditions. According to reports by the Pew Research Centre, Singapore’s religious diversity is remarkable on a global scale, and especially in comparison with its neighbours in South and South-East Asia.

During our recent 36-hour visit to Singapore last month, I took time to visit a variety of cathedrals, churches, synagogues mosques, shrines, pagodas and temples, making it almost like a fieldtrip in interfaith dialogue, visiting places of worship associated with Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Chinese traditional religion.

No more than around a third of the population in Singapore follows any one religion, according to census figures. Yet a Pew Research Centre report ranks Singapore as the most religiously diverse country in the world, with high levels of interreligious tolerance and acceptance on multiple measures.

Among adults in Singapore, 26% identify as Buddhist, 18% as Muslim, 17% as Christian, 8% as Hindu, 6% as a follower of Chinese traditional religions like Taoism or Confucianism, and 4% as some other religion, including Indigenous religions. Another 22% do not identify with any religion.

The churches I visited included Anglican, Roman Catholic and Armenian cathedrals and churches, I have been writing over the past few weeks about the synagogues and Jewish community of Singapore, and I was writing yesterday about my visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple on South Bridge Road, the largest and most impressive Buddhist temples in Chinatown, and the newest too.

Inside one of the two prayer halls in the Yueh Hai Ching Temple in the heart of the central business district in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

One of the oldest Chinese temples in Singapore is the Yueh Hai Ching Temple, also known in Teochew as the Wak Hai Cheng Bio, on Philip Street, near Raffles Place in the heart of the central business district of Singapore.

The name means ‘Temple of the Calm Sea of the Guangdong (Yue) People’. Today the temple is dwarfed by modern skyscrapers, but it dates from the early 19th century, when it was also the first stop for many Chinese immigrants arriving in Singapore.

The Teochew immigrants were from the Chaoshan region in Guangdong Province in South China, bordering Fujian Province. When they first arrived in Singapore, they set up a small wood-and-attap shrine on what is now Philip Street, and offered their thanks to Mazu, goddess of the seas, for protection them during treacherous sea voyages from China.

Lin Pan is named as the man said to have built the first purpose-built temple where the makeshift shrine once stood in 1826.

Like many other places of worship in Singapore, the temple became a social centre for immigrants. Ngee Ann Kongsi was established in 1845 to look after the religious and welfare needs of the Teochew community in Singapore, and took over the management of the temple that year. During its early years, the Kongsi was led by Seah Eu Chin, a wealthy Teochew pepper and gambier merchant.

Yueh Hai Ching Temple was rebuilt in 1852-1855 with funds from the growing Teochew community. Some building materials were specially imported from China.

Yueh Hai Ching Temple has received many awards for its heritage and conservation work (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The temple has two prayer halls: the left wing of the temple, Tian Hou Gong (‘Palace of the Heavenly Empress’), is reserved for the worship of Mazu; Shang Di Gong (‘Palace of the Heavenly Emperor’) on the right is for Xuan Tian Shang Di or Heavenly Emperor, the patron deity of the Teochews. As both prayer halls look identical, Cantonese devotees nicknamed the temple Mah Miu, which means ‘Twin Temples’.

The temple was built with the standard three-hall layout of Chinese temples, with covered courtyards between the entrance and main halls. Its Teochew-style roof has a relatively straight ridge. An outstanding feature is the set of three-dimensional sculptures on the roof, depicting scenes of towns in China, as well as mythical flora and fauna representing longevity, posterity, and strength.

The images of dragons and other ornamentation on the roofs of the temple are crafted using a method known as jian nian or ‘cut and paste’. Colourful ceramics were carefully cut and trimmed into smaller pieces, and then pasted to create beautiful mosaic figures. Inside, the temple has intricate carvings depicting scenes from popular Chinese legends and folklore.

In 1899, the Emperor Guangxu of Qing China gave the Yueh Hai Ching Temple the gift of a calligraphy scroll with four characters elegantly written in his own hand. The phrase, translated as ‘moving seas with peaceful clouds above’, conveyed the Emperor’s blessings to the local Chinese community, in return for the temple’s contribution towards flood relief efforts in Shandong, China.

The four characters were carved on a large wooden plaque, now prominently displayed in the Mazu temple. The only other Chinese temple in Singapore to have received a similar imperial favour is Thian Hock Keng.

Yueh Hai Ching Temple was gazetted as a national monument of Singapore in 1996. It was restored extensively in 2011-2014 and has received many awards for its heritage and conservation work. The temple remains popular with the Chinese community and some festivals include puppet shows to honour the deities.

The Jamae Mosque and its front entrance gate flanked by two minarets (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

In Chinatown itself, close to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple on South Bridge Road, the Jamae Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Singapore, while its neighbour, the Sri Mariamman Temple, is the oldest and perhaps the best-known Hindu temples in Singapore. Both the mosque and the temple stand out in the predominantly Chinese location.

Masjid Jamae was founded in 1826, the first of three mosques in Chinatown built by the Chulias, who were Tamil Muslims from the Coromandel coast of south India. The mosque has a shrine to an early local Muslim religious leader, Muhammad Salih Valinvah, whose grave was there before the mosque was built in the 1830s.

The mosque was completed in 1835, and its architectural styles blend eclectic traditions, from Indian and Islamic styles to western and Greek influences.

The neoclassical features of the mosque were influenced by the work of George Drumgoole Coleman from Drogheda (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The most significant feature is the front entrance gate with a South Indian Indo-Islamic influence, with two minarets flanking a miniature palace façade.

The neoclassical features of the two prayer halls and the shrine are in a Neo-Classical style that is typical of George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844) from Drogheda, the first trained architect in Singapore. These features include Doric columns and large windows with Chinese green-glazed tiles.

The mosque, which has given Mosque Street its name, was gazetted as a National Monument in 1974.

Sri Mariamman Temple dates from 1827 and is Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road dates from 1827 and is Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple. Mariamman is a rural south Indian mother goddess who is invoked for protection against diseases.

The temple was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement in Singapore. Pillai was a government clerk from Penang who arrived in Singapore with Sir Stamford Raffles on his second visit to the island in May 1819. Pillai went on to set up Singapore’s first construction company, was involved in the textile business, and was a leading figure in the Indian community.

The central tower or Goputram at the entrance resembles a pagoda, and this explains how the temple gives both Temple Street and Pagoda Street their names. The grand tower has five tiers of sculptures and carvings of Hindu deities and mythological figures.

The central tower at the entrance to Sri Mariamman Temple has tiers of sculptures and carvings of Hindu deities and mythological figures (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Inside the temple, there are exquisite ceiling paintings in the main hall. A major part of the present structure is believed to have been built in 1862–1863.

The walkway connecting the main entrance to the principal shrine was originally covered in attap, but this was destroyed in a fire in 1910. The architectural firm of Swan and Maclaren then designed a more permanent walkway in 1915.

Sri Mariamman Temple is known for the annual firewalking festival, Theemithi, about a week before Deepavali, the Festival of Lights. The temple was designated a National Monument in 1973.

The Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple was built almost 100 years ago in 1925 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The other Hindu temple I visited in Chinatown is the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple, beside the hotel where we were staying on Keong Saik Road. This temple was built almost 100 years ago in 1925 by Nattukkottai Chettiars, a money-changing community originally from Tamil Nadu.

The temple is dedicated to Ganesha, the elephant-headed god. Its humble beginnings were near the mortuary of Singapore General Hospital, where a Hindu temple with an atthapu roof of metal sheets was frequented by hospital and prison staff. The temple had statues of Vinayagar, also known as the elephant-headed god Ganesha, and Naagar, the snake god.

The government acquired the site from the temple in 1920 and used the land to expand the hospital. The compensation was used to build a new and more elegant temple at the junction of Keong Saik Road and Kreta Ayer Road in 1925.

Inside the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple on Keong Saik Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The statue of Vinayagar from the first temple and was installed in the new temple in front of the main black-stoned Vinayagar statue. A third statue of Vinayagar was installed was donated by Pichappa Chettiar, a trustee of the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple.

The temple on Keong Saik Road also has statues of the Holy Spear and the Rama Naamam. Every year on Thaipusam, the Holy Spear is brought to Thandayuthapani Temple in a silver chariot, where it is bathed in milk as an offering to Vinayagar’s brother, Murugan.

Recent census figures show 74.3 per cent of the population of Singapore is ethnic Chinese, 13.5 per cent ethnic Malay, 9 per cent ethnic Indian, and 3.2 per cent other, including Eurasian. It was easy during my visits to these cathedrals, churches, synagogues mosques, shrines, pagodas and temples to understand why Singapore has become known as a religious ‘melting pot’ and ‘cultural mosaic’.

Religious diversity and tolerance have made Singapore a religious ‘melting pot’ and ‘cultural mosaic’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Two sculptures express the Woolf Institute’s work in Cambridge with Judaism, Christianity and Islam

‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom at the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I spent Saturday in Cambridge, enjoying the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, founded in Cambridge in 1999.

The seminars, celebrations, worship and meals took place in Westminster College and its college chapel and in the Woolf Institute, which also shares the campus with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology and the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. All these centres are part of the Cambridge Theological Federation.

The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths is dedicated to the study of interfaith relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims and aims to foster greater understanding and tolerance between the three Abrahamic faiths. It was founded as the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler and Martin Forward in 1998, a year before the IOCS was founded. It was renamed in 2010 and it has had a home at Westminster College since 2017.

During the move to the Westminster College site in 2017, the Woolf Institute commissioned two powerful works of sculpture that represent its values: ‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom at the entrance to the Kessler Family Building and ‘Tree of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld on the lawn between Westminster College and the Woolf Institute.

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom sees ‘The Confusion’ as a metaphor for looking at things from different points of view (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom is a sculpture in wood and gold leaf measuring 3 metres in diameter. He sees ‘The Confusion’ as a metaphor for looking at things from different points of view.

The artist works principally in sculpture but also in video, dance, sound, photography and drawings, and he explores the notions of human progress in relation to historical ideas, scientific development and digital technology, as well as the ways we try as humans to understand the world around us, using methods such as storytelling, religion, science or technology.

FAD Magazine described him as ‘the future of sculpture’ and The Art Newspaper listed him among eight up-and coming-sculptors.

He studied ceramics at Edinburgh College of Ar, before going to London to earn a master’s degree in ceramics and glass at the Royal College of Art. At the RCA, he began to explore the use of digital technologies in relation to a broad range of materials, and he began using digital technologies in combination with sculpture and drawing.

Recently, he has been Artist-in-Residence at the Scottish Ballet. He has exhibited widely and has undertaken a number of public and private commissions, including Cambridge University and the 2012 London Olympics. His work is in collections across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom was commissioned as a centrepiece sculpture for the main entrance of the Woolf Institute’s Kessler Building and was the first public art installation at the institute. It took over five months to complete and is composed of 288 struts of Meranti wood coated in 24 carat gold leaf.

The Woolf Institute and the Kessler Building at night in Westminster College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As you walk into the Kessler Building, the sculpture hangs above head height in the entrance, suspended above the main foyer. At first, it may look like a jumbled collection of gold lines, but from other vantage points its true geometry comes into view.

‘When you look up at the sculpture from the basement level, and from the first floor,’ the artist has told interviewers, ‘the exacting geometry of the sculpture reveals itself. The wider metaphor is about points of view.’ It reflects, mirrors and distorts traditional images and motifs found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam and explores the relationships between the three Abrahamic traditions.

Initially he met the architects of the new building and immediately saw the potential in the rotunda space in the entrance. It is a space where from three floors of the building could look you can see into the same space.

He began by researching the symbols of each religion, aware of Islamic conventions on idolatry and the representation of human form. He researched Islamic geometry, began drawing patterns into which he incorporated two-dimensional geometric patterns akin to the Star of David and then experimented with trying to pull the geometry into three dimensions that looked like a crown of thorns.

‘I think that the research and activities that happen in the Woolf institute help to re-frame points of view and common structures within each of the Abrahamic religions,’ he has told interviewers. He says ‘The Confusion’ is ‘a very appropriate sculpture’ and that ‘within most religions there is the notion of an unseen, subtle and meaningful order.’

The viewer can look at the sculpture from one point of view and not understand it, but change that point of view while moving deeper into the building and the sculpture has a structure that becomes understandable. The wider metaphor is about points of view.

‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld … a monumental marble sculpture specially commissioned for the Woolf Institute (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld is a monumental marble sculpture that was specially commissioned for the Woolf Institute. It is 3 metres tall, weighs 4,500 kg and was sculpted from a 42-ton block of marble from the quarries in Carrera. It was completed in Italy and was then installed in the courtyard in front of the Kessler Building.

Helaine Blumenfeld is a long-time believer in the power of sculpture to ‘serve the public good.’ She has created more than 90 public sculptures, including ‘Tempesta’ overlooking Hyde Park in London and ‘Fortuna’ in Jubilee Park at Canary Wharf.

Helaine Blumenfeld has lived and worked in Grantchester for many years and has received world recognition for her sculptures. Her several commissions and public sculptures in the Cambridge area include ‘Flame’ at Clare Hall, ‘Shadow Figures’ at Vision Park in Histon and ‘The Chauvinist’ at UNEX House, Hills Road.

Speaking about her ‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’, she says it was inspired by the aims of the Woolf Institute to bring about understanding between Jews, Christians and Muslims ‘in order to reduce intolerance.’ These values are expressed in the words inscribed on its foundation stone, ‘A threefold cord is not quickly broken’ (Ecclesiastes 4: 12).

She says her ‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ at the Woolf Institute is ‘a powerful statement of the struggle for unity, with three strands joining together at the base and moving upward through dissonance and chaos to a beautiful flowering of hope.’

‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld … ‘a powerful statement of the struggle for unity’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The former ‘Pink Mosque’ with its golden domes and gilded cupolas, is a landmark in Kuching

The Kuching Mosque (Masjid Bandaraya Kuching) has golden domes and gilded cupolas, and its walls were once rendered in pink (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

The Kuching Mosque (Masjid Bandaraya Kuching) is a landmark building in Kuching. It is also affectionately known as the Masjid Lama, the ‘Old Mosque’ or ‘Old State Mosque’ and stands on a low hill overlooking the Sarawak River.

With its Mughal-style golden onion domes and its gilded cupolas, it is one of the city’s most striking landmarks. I am told it was even more striking at sunset until recent years when its walls were painted a unique rose-pink colour.

The Kuching Mosque served as the state mosque for many years until 1990, when a new and larger state mosque was built in Petra Jaya on the north side of the river.

The present mosque was built in 1968 to replace an original wooden building erected in 1852, although the first mosque on the site was erected in 1840, making it the oldest site of a mosque in Kuching, and contemporaneous with the arrival in Kuching in 1838 of the White Rajah of Sarawak, Sir James Brooke (1803-1868).

Inside the Kuching Mosque (Masjid Bandaraya Kuching), also known as the ‘Old Mosque’ or Old State Mosque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The mosque was founded by a local leader known as the Pangeran who had been appointed by the Sultan of Brunei. Pangeran Indera Mahkota was born Pangeran Mohd Salleh, and was better known by his title Pangeran than by his name.

He was educated in Batavia in present-day Jakarta, with further studies in Holland. He was summoned back by the sultan ca 1820 as the Governor of Sarawak, and first founded Kuching on a site previously known as Lidah Tanah. Indera Mahkota was said to be an educated, sophisiticated and talented man, and an orator, poet and skillful politician, as James Brooke acknowledged in his diary.

Brooke’s private secretary, Sir Spenser St John (1825-1910), later the British Consul-General in Brunei, thought the Pangeran was ‘the most talented man I met in Borneo’.

The Pangeran knew the promise by the Sultan of Brunei to cede Sarawak to Brooke would weaken Brunei. He devised plans to get rid of Brooke, and convinced the sultan to delay handing over power. In response, Brooke attacked the royal palace at Kuching and threatened to release all his cannons and guns unless he was ratified as the Governor of Sarawak. However, his vilification by Brooke court historians continues to obscure the achievements of the Pangeran.

Inside the central dome of the mosque, which shows strong Mughal influences (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

At first, the small hillside mosque founded by the Pangeran was a basic building on the edge of the town centre, near the shophouses and bazaar. As Kuching grew, the mosque became a focal point of the city, but a larger Muslim needed a bigger mosque. The Malay leader at that time, Dato Patinggi Ali, began a fundraising drive in 1847 to build a new mosque. He was a key figure in the resistance by Sarawak Malays resistance to the rule of the Sultan of Brunei in the 1830s and became one of the first supporters of the Brooke Raj.

A bigger mosque was built later with one of his family members, Dato Patinggi Haj Abdul Gapur, appointed as the first Imam.

The mosque was modified in 1880, using modern building materials that were readily available in Kuching, including bricks and cement, and the changes included a new concrete building and floor materials.

A high drum-pointed dome was added on top of the roof in 1932, with the help of the Brooke government and the local Malay leaders. The dome sits on an elevated base with clerestory windows.

By the 1950s, there were demands for a bigger mosque in Kuching. The first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, suggested building a new mosque instead of modifying the current mosque, and he laid the foundation stone for a new building in 1966. The old building was blown up using dynamite, and Malaysia’s Federal Government provided additional funding for building the new mosque.

The mosque has a main central onion-shaped dome, flanked by four smaller domes and instead of a detached minaret there are six smaller attached minarets (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The architectural design of the present mosque includes a main central onion-shaped dome, a design that shows strong Mughal influence. It is flanked by four smaller domes that sit on an open elevated place. It has no detached minaret, and instead, there are six smaller attached minarets, each surmounted by cupolas and onion-shaped domes.

There are modern-style crenelations on the parapet wall with a series of crescent-moon finials on top of the pilasters.

The main central onion-shaped dome is made out of lightweight metal in a golden yellow colour. It indicates the main prayer area below and expresses the importance or grandeur of the building in its setting.

The interior space is lit by natural lighting through glass windows and louvered blocks. The qibla or front wall is marked with a blind arch featuring the 99 names of Allah inscribed on a teak wood tile. Here too are the mihrab niche, with a timber minbar platform to its right.

A domed pavilion near the main entrance to the mosque (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A domed pavilion near the main entrance is perched on a terrazzo-clad platform, with three leading steps, up to the main prayer hall, and two more steps to the upper female prayer gallery. The cemetery and gravestones surrounding the mosque and filling the slopes of the hillside form an unusual feature.

The mosque was under renovation until recently, but it is open to visitors once again and while I was visiting last week a small group of four Mormon missionaries were being welcomed on a small guided tour.

During the recent renovations, the once rose-pink walls were rendered in white. But with its golden domes and gilded cupolas it remains an impressive site overlooking the Sarawak River and the waterfront, and ‘Old Mosque’ is still the main mosque on the south side of Kuching.

The cemetery and gravestones surrounding the mosque filling the slopes of the hillside overlooking the Sarawak River (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)