Middle East United Methodists feel brunt of war

Key points:

• Filipino United Methodists who work and worship in the United Arab Emirates and surrounding countries have been caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
• While congregations, so far, report no casualties, the war has taken its toll on United Methodists in the Middle East.
• Church leaders call for prayer for a true end to the conflict and lasting peace.

United Arab Emirates authorities ordered the closure of all houses of worship in the country on April 3, Good Friday this year.

That meant churches stood empty on Easter Sunday — a desolate sight on a day of Resurrection joy when pews, even in this Muslim-majority country, typically overflow.

Still, a number of the country’s religious leaders saw the shutdown as a necessary safety precaution amid the ongoing war that had clouded the skies with the explosions of ballistic missiles.

First United Methodist Church in Dubai, a church planted by Filipino United Methodists working in the country, met by Zoom on Easter.

The Rev. Joseph M. De Castro, the congregation’s pastor, said more than 100 logged in.

“Some were in apartments with the sound of air defense systems still fresh in memory. Some were nursing quiet losses — jobs disrupted, travel plans destroyed, loved ones they couldn’t reach,” he told United Methodist News.

“And yet — there was Easter. Stubborn, beautiful, unstoppable Easter. It was, in its own way, the most powerful Easter service I have attended in my first year of ministry in the UAE.”

When the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack against Iran on Feb. 28, people living on the Arabian Peninsula were caught in the crossfire. Iranian forces immediately retaliated by bombing Gulf states including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and especially the UAE, a regional economic power and host to a U.S. Air Force base. The UAE’s defenses intercepted most Iranian drones and missiles — but some slipped through and hit residential buildings and damaged an oil port and Dubai’s airport.

So far, a ceasefire that started days after Easter on April 8 has held, De Castro said — though only tentatively. Diplomatic negotiations appear to be deadlocked, and competing U.S. and Iranian blockades of the Strait of Hormuz continue to cripple global energy and fertilizer supplies.

“The broader wounds of the 2026 Iran war — thousands dead, Lebanon devastated again, an entire region reordered — will take years to process and heal,” De Castro said.

The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz also has raised oil prices and disrupted food production far from the Middle East, including in the Philippines where the price of petroleum has doubled since the start of the conflict.

Bishop Ruby-Nell Estrella leads United Methodists in the Manila Area of the Philippines as well as in the Middle East.

“I am praying for people’s safety, of course,” she told UM News during the Council of Bishops meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. “But mainly I am praying for this war to stop.”

The United Methodist Church has congregations across the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and a new mission congregation in Saudi Arabia. Worshippers in these congregations and mission churches tend to be migrant workers — most of them Filipinos who come from multiple countries.

“For the nearly one million Filipinos living in the UAE — many of them fellow United Methodists and Christians — the threat was immediate, visceral and deeply unsettling,” De Castro said.

While no United Methodist civilians have died in the combat, the Rev. Igmedio “Bong” C. Domingo — supervising elder of United Methodists in the UAE and a missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries — said the conflict has taken a toll on church members across the region.

“Emotionally and spiritually, as I talked to them there is a heightened level of anxiety, fear and uncertainty,” he said. “Members are deeply concerned about the safety of their families in their home countries, while also navigating the pressures of living and working in host countries during a time of geopolitical tension. News of war often triggers stress, grief and even trauma within the community especially to our young churches.”

Domingo added that for some members, the war has resulted in job instability, reduced income or limitations in mobility. In certain cases, the war has disrupted or strained the ability of workers to send remittances back home.

“In our Middle East Coordinating Council meeting last April 21,” he said, “there are reports of joblessness, fear and anxiety from members being laid off due to closure of so many companies.”

The need for pastoral care and crisis counseling has also increased.

At the same time, Domingo said, the church has become an even more vital space for refuge, prayer and mutual encouragement.

“There is a noticeable deepening of faith, increased participation in prayer gatherings and a stronger sense of solidarity among members,” he said.

The United Methodist Social Principles state that the denomination “deplores war and all other forms of violent conflict and urges the peaceful settlement of all disputes.”

United Methodists, the Social Principles say, “yearn for the day when there will be no more war and people will live together in peace and justice.”

In keeping with these teachings, the Board of Church and Society in the denomination’s Philippines Regional Conference is urging fellow United Methodists to advocate for an end to the war. 

With the ceasefire, authorities allowed churches in Dubai to again open their doors. But that reopening has come with significant conditions including a ban on children under the age of 16 attending in-person worship.

“This restriction has weighed heavily on families, for whom Sunday service is a deeply communal, intergenerational experience,” De Castro said. “Parents have had to choose: attend without their children, or worship together as a household online.”

He said that authorities expect that this restriction, too, will only be temporary and will end as security threats continue to ease.

Both De Casto and Domingo stressed the resilience, faith and witness of the United Methodist congregations in the Middle East.

“We continue to pray for peace — for Iran, for Israel, for Lebanon, for this whole scarred and beautiful region that we call home,” De Castro said. “We pray for the children who have not yet been allowed back into the pews. We pray for the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) who lost jobs, for the families still waiting for someone to come home. And we give thanks — improbably, stubbornly, Easterly — for a faith that refused to be shut down even when the churches were.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News, and Basillo heads Philippines partnerships for United Methodist Communications.

News media contact: Julie Dwyer at [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.