Bangladesh Bishop Paul Sarker visits New York
Episcopal News Service. July 7, 2010 [070710-02]
ENS staff
A video accompanying this article is available here.
Church of Bangladesh Bishop Paul Shishir Sarker visited the Episcopal Church Center in New York July 6, meeting with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and program staff.
Sarker is the moderator of the Church of Bangladesh, the country's third largest Christian church with 18,000 Anglican and Presbyterian members in two dioceses; he is also the bishop of the Diocese of Dhaka.
The bishop and his wife, Janet Sarker, were in the United States to attend a World Communion of Reformed Churches conference held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in late June. On July 2, the Anglican Communion Office announced that Sarker would replace Middle East President Bishop Mouneer Anis on the Standing Committee, which oversees the day-to-day operations of the office and the programs and ministries of the instruments of communion. (Anis resigned in February.)
During the program staff briefing, Sarker talked about the work of the Church in Bangladesh, which includes operating more than 30 schools to educate boys and girls of any faith background or religious tradition.
Eighty-seven percent of Bangladesh's 158 million people are Muslim, about 10 percent Hindu and less then one percent are Christian, the bishop explained.