Esther John - Westminster Abbey, London, UK
N 51° 29.968 W 000° 07.716
30U E 699295 N 5709279
A statue to Esther John, a modern martyr, was unveiled in July 1998 and stands above the west entrance to Westminster Abbey. This is one of ten statues of 20th century martyrs.
Waymark Code: WME2D5
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/25/2012
Views: 9
The statue, by Neil Simmons, was placed here in 1998. It
weighs about a ton and is carved from French Richemont limestone. The statue,
that is about twice life size, shows Esther with her hair tied back and wearing
an asian sari. In her right hand she appears to be holding some form of a small
drum with the fingers of her left hand resting on the skin of the drum. Her gaze
is into the distance. She is bare footed.
The Westminster Abbey website (visit
link) tells us about Esther:
"In an age where conversion to a new faith provokes fear and hatred
'Leave all other ties, Jesus is calling.'
Esther John was born Qamar Zia, on 14 October 1929, one of seven children. As a
child she attended a government school and, after the age of seventeen, a
Christian school. There she was profoundly moved by the transparent faith of one
of her teachers, and she began to read the Bible earnestly. It was when reading
the 53rd chapter of Isaiah that she was suddenly overtaken by a sense of
conversion to this new religion.
When India was partitioned Qamar Zia moved with her family into the new state of
Pakistan. Here she made contact with a missionary, Marian Laugesen in Karachi.
Laugesen, at her request, passed on to her a New Testament. Her Christian faith
grew privately, even secretly. Then, seven years later, she ran away from home,
fearful of the prospect of marriage to a Muslim husband. She found her way back
to Laugesen in Karachi.
For a while Qamar Zia worked in an orphanage there, and it was at this time that
she took the name Esther John. Her family still pressed her to return and to
marry, but on 30 June 1955 she took a train north to Sahiwal, in the Punjab.
Here she lived and worked in a mission hospital, stayed with the first Anglican
bishop of Karachi, Chandu Ray, and celebrated her first Christmas. Finding a
vocation to teach, she entered the United Bible Training Centre in Gujranwala in
September 1956. In April 1959 she completed her studies there and moved to
Chichawatni, some thirty miles from Sahiwal, living with American Presbyterian
missionaries. She evangelized in the villages, travelling from one to the other
by bicycle, teaching women to read and working with them in the cotton fields.
At times her relationship with her distant and perplexed family appeared calm;
at others anxiety and tension brewed.
Her death was sudden and mysterious. On 2 February 1960 Esther John was found
dead in her bed at the house where she lived at Chichawatni. She had been
brutally murdered.
Her body was taken to the Christian cemetery at Sahiwal and buried. Later, a
memorial chapel was built in front of the nurses' home in the grounds of the
hospital there. Today, Esther John is remembered with devotion by the Christian
community with whom she lived and worked."