“Generally, Romanians in the United Arab Emirates are a community appreciated by the locals and the government. The majority work in fields such as IT, education, industry, engineering, trade, security and bear the name of Romanian and Christian with dignity, in an Arab and Muslim world”, priest Alexandru Ioan Trușcan said in an interview with Formula AS.
However, far from their country and their families, Romanians in the Middle East face the same social and spiritual problems and challenges that any uprooted Romanian encounters, the parish priest of the Romanians in Dubai also underlined.
“Although they live and work in the most famous emirate in the world, the Romanians here are people with modest financial possibilities.”
He assured that the Romanian Orthodox Church, present in Dubai since 2021, “will strive to be the main factor of cohesion in the community, offering religious assistance, moral and material support to its members, while striving, at the same time, to preserve the sense of belonging to the Romanian nation.”
“Far from the country, but with a Romanian soul,” Father Trușcan said.
The Romanian priest in Dubai confessed that he had many challenges in the newly established parish, although the United Arab Emirates is among the few Muslim countries that allow residents of other denominations to express their religious faith publicly.
At the moment, Priest Ioan Trușcan serves at the Antiochian Church of the Annunciation in the Jebel Ali neighbourhood and is taking steps to build a parish church. The new church project in Dubai also includes a Sports Center (CROSS).
Photo: Romanian Orthodox Parish in Dubai / Facebook
Follow un on Twitter: @BasilicaNews
