HRH Prince Charles at a Greek Orthodox Church, in Doha, Qatar. Feb, 21, 2014.
On the fifth day of The Prince of Wales’s tour of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, His Royal Highness visited the Doha Religious Complex.
The Prince paid a visit to the St Isaac and St George Greek Orthodox Church, which has a vibrant congregation from orthodox communities from across the Arab world.
The Prince has strong personal connections with the Orthodox Church – his father HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is the former Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, whose mother, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark (the former Princess Alice of Battenberg) took founded an Orthodox nursing sisterhood (the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary) through which she embraced poverty and monastic life – even when she lived in her last few years at Buckingham Palace – and was known as Mother Alice-Elizabeth.
Prince Charles is likewise a person with a strong interest in faith and the spiritual life, not least through the media of art and music. The late Sir John Tavener, the Orthodox composer, was a close friend; and The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts includes Aidan Hart, the English iconographer, on its Visiting Faculty.