Second church underway in Qatar

The foundation stone of Qatar's second Anglican church was laid on Sunday in a ceremony presided over by the Bishop of Cyprus.

The Rt Rev Michael Lewis said that the time of the church's completion would depend on the amount of donations that came in to fund the project, according to Middle East Online.

The church is being built on land donated by the Qatari emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, located on the outskirts of the Gulf state's capital city Doha.

It follows the completion in March of the country's first ever church, the Roman Catholic Our Lady of the Rosary church, on a site nearby. Three more churches are planned in Qatar, where the majority of the population adheres to a strict form of Islam called Wahhabism.

Bishop Lewis estimated the Christian population in Qatar to be between 15,000 and 20,000.