It is not unusual for sexual abuse victims, unpaid labourers or domestic servants to turn to places of worship for sanctuary. Still, Canon Andrew Thompson was taken aback a few months ago when a Ugandan woman was found clinging to St Andrew’s Church altar in Abu Dhabi, crying out to God for protection.
“She escaped from a sex trafficking gang. And the thing that was really frightening her was that the traffickers told her: ‘If you run away, we are going to use black magic,’" Canon Thompson recalled.
The vicar called in the police. The victim was moved to an Emirati women’s shelter during the investigation and court hearing, and the Anglican church subsequently helped to arrange her flight home. Before her departure, UAE authorities returned the woman’s fingernail clippings and a lock of hair held by the gang, so she no longer had to live in fear of a black magic curse.
“They didn’t have to do that. But the UAE police went out of their way in this particular case to make her feel safe,” Rev Thompson said.
It is an extraordinary tale, but sex trafficking is not unique to the UAE or indeed to the UK, where Rev Thompson was born and was ordained as an adult in 2000. He has counselled some of the world’s poorest during a 30-year career of charitable and religious work in Britain, Jordan and Kuwait. In the UAE, he has been pastor of St Andrew’s Church in Abu Dhabi since 2010.
He spoke to The National as he prepared his Easter address, and sought to raise money for a new church in the Mussaffah area.
When we meet, just before Easter, however, it is not in the sanctuary of St Andrew’s but in Mayfair, central London, a short walk from the Ritz Hotel. With Easter approaching and Rev Thompson’s 50th birthday approaching in June, he is in a reflective mood.
Rev Thompson was born with a hearing impairment, but he reads lips and patiently answers questions about his spiritual journey from England to the UAE, and life as a Christian in a country where 76 per cent of the population is Muslim and Islam is the official religion.
“Yes, I live in a Muslim majority country and yes, we are a very small percentage of the population, a religious minority, but we are not persecuted. We are not treated as second-class citizens. Quite the contrary. We are given a very visible profile and we are involved in international conferences, sometimes at the government’s expense, to represent the Christian community in the UAE,” he said.
The church was his calling from an early age. Rev Thomson was born in Crawley, in south-east England. After studying behavioural sciences and Islamic communities, he moved to Jordan in 1990 to work with Palestinian youth and later to Dubai as an Anglican church youth worker.
He married in 1994, trained as a church of England priest in the UK, and moved back to the Middle East, moving between Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and then to Kuwait in 2006, where he was the chaplain of the local parish of St Paul’s.
Rev Thompson was awarded the MBE in 2011 – The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to human rights and promoting interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims while working in Kuwait.
Since 2010, however, his home has been in Abu Dhabi, where it is estimated that several hundred thousand Christians live, many from India, Nepal and the Philippines. Christians make up 9 per cent of the UAE residents.
Rev Thompson's Anglican congregation of several hundred worshippers includes many professional expats, but he is also on the front line helping Abu Dhabi's most disadvantaged and operating as the interface between Anglican faithful and the Muslim community.
A chaplain's role is not just about spiritual needs, however. When we meet, Rev Thompson has a much more worldly problem on his mind: money.
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He is hoping to build the region’s largest Anglican church in Abu Dhabi. Construction is under way on land in Musaffah donated by the President, Sheikh Khalifa, a testament to the UAE’s multicultural tolerance. More than 40 congregations operate in the region with the support of the UAE government.
Rev Thompson’s new church is to be called All Saints, but the problem is that it is only 60 per cent complete. A key donor pulled out several years ago and Rev Thompson needs to find almost Dh25 million to finish construction.
“We’ve hit a bit of a bump due of finance. We were hoping to get a commercial loan from the local banks,” he said.
The church is praying for either a commercial investor or an outpouring of donations.
When construction is finished, All Saints will be able to accommodate several thousand worshippers at a time, so in theory it could provide a spiritual home for other Christian denominations to also carry out their worship services, hosting 40,000 people in 12 hours.
More than 50 groups and about 15,000 people now use St Andrew’s Church to worship, including Greek Orthodox, Egyptian Coptic Orthodox, the Korean Methodist Church and the Church of Pakistan. A similar arrangement is envisioned for All Saints Church.
The Anglican church was originally hoping to host All Saints Church’s at the weekend with an Easter service. Instead, the deadline came and went without much fanfare.
Rev Thompson remains hopeful despite the setback.
His Easter message on Sunday was uplifting, focusing on the call of the church to be a "resurrection people" rather than a people focused on injustice and death.
"We look with hope to overcome and transform bad news into good news," he says.
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
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.”
Going grey? A stylist's advice
If you’re going to go grey, a great style, well-cared for hair (in a sleek, classy style, like a bob), and a young spirit and attitude go a long way, says Maria Dowling, founder of the Maria Dowling Salon in Dubai.
It’s easier to go grey from a lighter colour, so you may want to do that first. And this is the time to try a shorter style, she advises. Then a stylist can introduce highlights, start lightening up the roots, and let it fade out. Once it’s entirely grey, a purple shampoo will prevent yellowing.
“Get professional help – there’s no other way to go around it,” she says. “And don’t just let it grow out because that looks really bad. Put effort into it: properly condition, straighten, get regular trims, make sure it’s glossy.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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