All Saints' Church located inside the Kohati Gate of the old

walled city The following cities have, or historically had, defensive walls. Africa Algeria * Algiers * Ghardaïa * Timimoun Egypt See List of Egypt castles, forts, fortifications and city walls. * Al-Fustat * Cairo * Damietta Ethiopia * Harar Libya *Apo ...

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, is a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of the

Church of Pakistan The Church of Pakistan is a united Protestant church in Pakistan founded in 1970; it holds membership in the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches,Database (9 February 2006)"Sialkot Diocese of the Church of Pakistan". R ...

. It is an architecturally unique place of Christian worship that bears a striking resemblance to a saracenic

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

with

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

s and a dome.

History

The Church was opened on St. John's Day, 27 December 1883. Although original memorials in the church record early European benefactors and the names of mission staff, from the outset the church was described as a native Christian church built for the indigenous population of Peshawar. The first

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

of the church was the Rev. Imam Shah. The foundation stone of the church was laid by Captain Graves whose widow presented the brass desk on the

Lord's Table Communion table and Lord's table are terms used by many Protestant churches—particularly from Reformed, Baptist and low church Anglican and Methodist bodies—for the table used for preparation of Holy Communion (a sacrament also called the ''E ...

. A local

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, under the supervision of

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

staff including the Rev.

Thomas Hughes Thomas Hughes (20 October 1822 – 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had atte ...

, was responsible for the design of the building. The building is cruciform in layout with the chancel at the west end. A plaque records: "This church is erected to the Glory of God and dedicated to the memory of All Saints in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1883."

Attack by terrorists

On September 22, 2013, two

suicide bomb A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, #Terminology , see below) is a deliberate Strike (attack) , attack in which the perpetrators suicide , knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are ...

ers carried out an attack outside the church at the end of a Sunday service, killing 127 people and injuring 170. 600 parishioners were on the front lawn of the church, having lunch, when two

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

ers

detonate Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves wit ...

d themselves, leaving the church scattered with body parts. Victims included an estimated 37 children. TTP Jundullah, linked to the Taliban, said it had carried out the attack on the Christian congregation, saying, "We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land." This was the second attack on churches in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in a year, where another church in

Mardan Mardān is a city in the Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Located in the Valley of Peshawar, Mardan is the List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, second-largest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (after Peshawar). ...

was burnt exactly a year before this incident. On January 30, 2022, two clergymen from the church were shot dead by attackers approaching on a motorcycle as they went from the church to the clergy house attached to the church. Pastor William Siraj was killed instantly and Revd. Patrick Naeem was injured and died later of his wounds. On the occasion of the killings Azad Marshall, senior Bishop of the Church of Pakistan condemned the attack and said "We demand justice and the protection of Christians by the government of Pakistan."

References

External links

All Saints' Church Peshawar by Thomas Patrick Hughes
{{coord, 34.0053, 71.5712, type:landmark_region:PK, display=title, format=dms Churches in Peshawar Church of Pakistan church buildings in Pakistan Churches completed in 1883 1883 establishments in British India 19th-century Anglican church buildings in Pakistan

History

Attack by terrorists

References

Further reading

External links