Religious Communities To Join If You’ve Just Moved To Malta
One of the biggest challenges for a religious person who relocates to a new country is finding a community of like-minded people to practice their faith with. While Catholicism dominates the local scene, there are smaller groups that cater to a lot of the ‘smaller’ religious beliefs in Malta. Here’s some information that might help you get started.
The information we have listed here is an aggregation of data available online, if you have any personal suggestions, feel free to message on Facebook or email us on [email protected]
1. Communities for Christianity
Roman Catholicism is the primary religion in Malta, so finding a community shouldn’t be too difficult. Groups like CLC Malta, Malta Catholic Youth Network and Y4J (Youths For Jesus) meet often. There’s also over 350 churches just waiting for your visit.
Malta also has a smaller community of Evangelical, Anglican, Baptist, Protestant and Pentecostal Christians.
The Evangelic churches can be found in Msida and Mosta, the Baptist churches in Qormi and Gżira, the Anglican Cathedral is found in Valletta and there’s also a church in Sliema while the Pentecostal church can be found in Qormi.
2. Communities for Islam
Malta has one mosque which is located in Paola. The Mariam Al-Batool mosque was opened in 1982 and the grounds surrounding the mosque also house a school for Muslim children, the Imam’s house, a Muslim cemetery and the Maltese Islamic Centre.
The main tradition of the Mosque is Sunni, however they don’t only host Sunni Muslims.
You can find out more about the history of Islam in Malta here, and about Mariam Al-Batool School here.
3. Communities for Buddhism
The Malta Buddhist Association was set up in 2012 and has slowly gained a small following. The community doesn’t appear to have a central meeting location.
There is also another smaller, Buddhist community based in Mosta that organises public meditations in the evening.
4. Communities for Hinduism
Malta has a large (for a tiny, Catholic island) community of Hindus, however relations have been a little strained in the past.
Unfortunately Hinduism is not officially recognised as a religion in Malta (the local Hindu community even appealed this classification with the Pope) so there are no ‘official’ temples. However, there is a Maltese-Indian Community Centre in Triq Bella Vista, San Gwann that serves as a base for religious meetings.
The community also organises an annual Diwali ball with live performances and celebrations for all the family.
5. Communities for Judaism
Jewish people living in Malta set up Chabad Jewish Centre in 2013. The community hosts several activities throughout the year, and has all the information you could ever need on its website, including locations for Kosher restaurants, Shabbat in Malta and Passover in Malta.
The Chabad Jewish Centre also runs a Kindergarten for local Jewish kids and Torah classes for the community. The centre is based in St. Julians, but it also runs the Synagogue in Ta’ Xbiex.