United Christian Church of Dubai

The United Christian Church of Dubai [http://uccdubai.com UCCD Website] , United Christian Church of Dubai Website] (or UCCD) is an evangelical church dedicated to the glory of God in all things. Established in 1962 as a small fellowship of expatriate oil and gas workers in the Emirate of Dubai, they now comprise more than 1,000 worshipers from at least 50 nationalities, meeting in the Dubai Evangelical Church Center on Friday mornings.

1970's

In 1977, as more expatriate Christians came to Dubai, the small fellowship constituted itself as a church, called the International Evangelical Church of Dubai. A pastor was called, and a statement of doctrine was adopted. In the following year, the first constitution was accepted. The church was then meeting on Sundays in the Jumeirah American School (now the American School of Dubai), and Sunday School was held there in the afternoons.

1980's

In 1980, Virgil Smith, an American, was called to serve as the church’s second pastor. During his 12 years of ministry, Pastor Smith approached the Ruler of Dubai to seek land for a church building and began fund raising efforts, but no land was immediately granted. At this time the church’s name was changed to the International Christian Church of Dubai (ICCD). Due to tensions related to the Iran/Iraq war and the United States’ attack on Libya the church was asked, for security reasons, to leave the Jumeirah American School. For while the church met in hired hotel rooms and later in Our Own English High School and The Cambridge High School, through the kindness of the school’s owner, Mrs. Varkey.

1990's

In 1990, the church leased a large Arabic style villa in Jumeirah (the “Jumeirah Villa”), which remained the church home until September, 2003, and continued thereafter to be used for Sunday evening services and other churches’ meetings until the Dubai Municipality ordered the villa’s closure in June of 2006.

With “The Villa” as a permanent place of worship, the church grew significantly. Most notably, in 1990 a Friday morning service was started by 4 families, which grew to become the main gathering of the church. Around this time the church joined the Council of Evangelical Churches in the UAE (CEC), a sponsoring organization recognized by the UAE immigration authorities. After Virgil Smith’s retirement in 1991, there were a number of interim pastorates and some members split away from the fellowship, taking the banking accounts and name (ICCD) with them. The remaining members continued to meet in the villa and changed their name to the United Christian Church of Dubai (UCCD). At this point The Villa was also used by other Christian groups, including the Arabic Evangelical Church of Dubai (AECD), pastored by Carl Sherbeck, also an American. Carl had been serving the Lord in the UAE for nearly 30 years and had previously planted Arabic-speaking congregations in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.

In 1992, UCCD called Don Smith from the United States as the senior pastor and Peter Dale from the UK as youth pastor the following year. In 1993, Pastor Daniel Splett replaced Smith as senior pastor and led the church through a difficult period. The following year, an informal group composed of UCCD, ICCD and AECD and chaired by Carl Sherbeck applied for a grant of land from the Ruler of Dubai on which to construct a church building. During this time a small group of members of UCCD who lived in Sharjah started meeting in a hotel there and so started the first church plant of UCCD. This church continues to meet in Sharjah.

After years of UCCD’s prayer and petition, the Ruler of Dubai in 1998 granted a piece of land to these churches, and fund raising commenced for a building. The Dubai Evangelical Church Center Committee (DECCC) was established for building design and placement and fund raising.

2000's

Building work on DECC commenced late in 2001. Meanwhile, the congregation continued to grow, meeting at the Jumeirah Villa. In 2002, Pastor Daniel Splett led in the establishment of a Friday morning Mandarin Chinese service, which soon outgrew the allotted space. Later that year Pastor Jackie Lau was called to pastor what became known as the Chinese Christian Church of Dubai (CCCD).

In September, 2003, the Friday services commenced at the new Dubai Evangelical Church Center in Maranatha Hall. In the same year, the Filipino Christian Church of Dubai (FCCD) was formed and, along with CCCD, began meeting in at DECC on Friday mornings and afternoons.

In 2004, after a decade of numerical growth in the church, UCCD’s staff began to increase accordingly, with Glen Jones called as Director of Music Ministries and Bethany Tapp as Director of Children’s Ministries. The next year, UCCD’s care life groups had expanded to the point that Pastor Daniel Splett began to concentrate primarily on that ministry, and John Folmar [http://www.9marks.org/CC/article/0,,PTID314526%7CCHID598014%7CCIID2263366,00.html#folmar 9Marks Website] , 9Marks ministries ] was called to serve UCCD as the Teaching and Administration pastor. In 2006, John Welkner was added as youth pastor. In 2007, after 12 years of service with UCCD where he saw tremendous growth, Pastor Daniel Splett departed UCCD to serve [http://www.rhccc.on.ca/|Richmond Hill Community Church] in Toronto. The following year saw the addition of three more staff members, Richard Ngwisha (Director of Discipleship), Jeremy Yong (Director of Ministries) and Roy Verrips (Church Administrator).

Forty-six years after the small fellowship was begun in the sands of Dubai, UCCD remains committed to same evangelical vision of its founders: “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” .

See also

*Dubai
*United Arab Emirates
*Human rights in the United Arab Emirates
*Freedom of religion in the United Arab Emirates

External Links

* [http://www.deccc.com|Dubai Evangelical Church Centre]
* [http://uccdubai.com|United Christian Church of Dubai Website]
* [http://eccad.org|Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi Website]

References