Christ Church, Nazareth

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Christ Church
Nazareth Christ church 1.jpg
West facade before 2014 (without spire)
Religion
Affiliation Anglican
DistrictDiocese of Jerusalem
ProvinceEpiscopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
LeadershipEpiscopal
Location
Location Flag of Israel.svg Nazareth, Israel
Architecture
Architect(s) Ferdinand Stadler
Style Gothic Revival
Completed1871
Spire(s)1

Christ Church (Hebrew : כנסיית המשיח, romanized: Knesset HaMashiakh, lit.  'Assembly of the Mashiakh '; Arabic : كنيسة المسيح, romanized: Kanisah al-Masîḥ) is an Anglican church located in the town of Nazareth, Israel. Due to financial troubles the church couldn't be completed by 1871 and lacked its intended spire, until one was finally added 143 years later, in 2014. Nearby lies the famous Basilica of the Annunciation.

Contents

History

Drawing of the church showing the spire that was not built until 2014 Nazareth evangelische Kirche.jpg
Drawing of the church showing the spire that was not built until 2014

Christ Church in Nazareth is the last work of Swiss architect Ferdinand Stadler. Works at the site began in 1869 but construction was not completed when Stadler died in 1870. When the church was finished in 1871, it was the second Anglican church to be built in the Holy Land. The first is located in Jerusalem. [1] The building was consecrated by Bishop Samuel Gobat, and Rev. John Zeller was the pastor at the time of its consecration. The Church Mission Society (CMS) provided many of the early missionaries who served at Christ Church. [2] It served as a mission center for the region and ministry also took place in Mujeidal (today's Migdal HaEmek), Reineh, and Kafr Kanna (Cana of Galilee).

A number of influential priests of the Church of England were pastors and missionaries who ministered at Christ Church or were based there. These include Frederick Augustus Klein, Michael Ka'war, Seraphim Boutaji, and Khalil Jamal; the last of which was essential in founding the Protestant presence on the East Bank of the Jordan.

John Zeller (or Johannes Zeller, by his original German name) described worship at the church in the late 19th century with the following words:

One part of the hall is filled with girls of the boarding school and the women of the congregation; and the other is so closely packed with men, that every observer would wish to have a larger locality. The service is in Arabic, according to the liturgy of the Church of England. The responses are said by the whole congregation, and all heartily join in the singing, accompanied by a harmonium. [...] a stranger would at once be surprised to see their heads covered, either with the red fez or a little white cap, or a black handkerchief tied with a brown rope, in the Bedouin fashion; and yet he would be struck with the close attention expressed in almost every face at the time of the sermon. [3]

On 26 September 1937, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, acting District Commissioner of the Galilee Lewis Andrews was assassinated by Arab gunmen on his way to Christ Church. [4]

Today

As of 2013 the church has about 40 families as members, and the membership is almost entirely Arab Palestinian. There is one Arabic-language service every Sunday morning. Excepting visitors, attendance is usually around 50. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazareth</span> Largest city in the Northern District of Israel

Nazareth is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2022 its population was 78,007. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and commercial center for the Arab citizens of Israel. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian. The city also commands immense religious significance, deriving from its status as the hometown of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity and a prophet in Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian Christians</span> Religious minority of the Palestinian people

Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within the State of Palestine and within Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.

Nof HaGalil City in Israel

Nof HaGalil is a city in the Northern District of Israel with a population of 44,184.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East</span> Anglican church organization

The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East is a province of the Anglican Communion. The primate of the church is called President Bishop and represents the Church at the international Anglican Communion Primates' Meetings. The Central Synod of the church is its deliberative and legislative organ.

The Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABCI) is an association of Baptist Christian churches in Israel. It is a member of the European Baptist Federation, the Baptist World Alliance and the Evangelical Alliance of Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem</span> Catherdral in Jerusalem

St. George's Cathedral is an Anglican (Episcopal) cathedral in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, established in 1899. It became the seat of the Bishop of Jerusalem of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, having taken the title from Christ Church, Jerusalem, built 50 years before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem</span> Eastern Orthodox church

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, is an autocephalous church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Established in the mid-fifth century as one of the oldest patriarchates in Christendom, it is headquartered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and led by the patriarch of Jerusalem, currently Theophilos III. The patriarchate's ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes roughly 200,000 to 500,000 Orthodox Christians across the Holy Land in Palestine, Jordan and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Gobat</span> Swiss Anglican bishop (1799–1879)

Samuel Gobat was a Swiss Calvinist who became an Anglican missionary in Africa and was the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem from 1846 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem</span> Anglican jurisdiction in part of the Middle East

The AnglicanDiocese of Jerusalem is the Anglican jurisdiction for Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It is a part of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, and has diocesan offices at St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Jordan</span>

Jordan contains one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, their presence dating back to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ early in the 1st century AD. Christians today make up about 3% of the population. Jordanian Christians in a country of almost 10 million are thought to number 250,000-400,000, down from 20% in 1930, but their absolute numbers have increased. This is the result of high immigration rate of Muslims into Jordan, high emigration rates of Christians, and high birth rates for Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Colony, Haifa</span> Settlement founded by the German Templer community in Palestine in the 19th century

The German Colony was established in Ottoman Haifa in 1868 as a Christian German Templer Colony in Palestine. It was the first of several colonies established by the group in the Holy Land. Others were founded in Sarona near Jaffa, Galilee and Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Israel</span>

Christianity is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab-Israelis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem</span> Protestant church in Jerusalem

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer is the second Protestant church in Jerusalem, Israel,. It is a property of the Evangelical Jerusalem Foundation, one of the three foundations of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in the Holy Land. Built between 1893 and 1898 by the architect Paul Ferdinand Groth following the designs of Friedrich Adler, the Church of the Redeemer currently houses Lutheran congregations that worship in Arabic, German, Danish, and English. The Church, together with the adjoining provost building, is the seat of the Provost of the German Protestant Ministries in the Holy Land. It also serves as the headquarters of the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, since this Arabic-speaking (Palestinian) church became independent from the German provost in 1979.

The Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, is a cemetery owned by the Anglican Church Missionary Trust Association Ltd., London, represented by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and The Middle East. In 1848 Samuel Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, opened the cemetery and dedicated it as ecumenical graveyard for congregants of Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and old Catholic faith. Since its original beneficiary, the Bishopric of Jerusalem was maintained as a joint venture of the Anglican Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Prussia, a united Protestant Landeskirche of Lutheran and Reformed congregations, until 1886, the Jerusalem Lutheran congregation preserved a right to bury congregants there also after the Jerusalem Bishopric had become a solely Anglican diocese.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is a Lutheran denomination that has congregations in Jordan and State of Palestine. First recognized as an autonomous religious community by King Hussein in 1959, the church currently has 2,500 members in six congregations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazareth Evangelical College</span>

Nazareth Evangelical College is an evangelical Bible college located in Nazareth, Israel. The language of instruction is Arabic. The college offers graduate and undergraduate degrees and provides a number of other education services to the local community.

John Zeller (1830–1902), also known by his German name Johannes Zeller, was a 19th-century Protestant missionary in Ottoman Israel. Zeller's four decades left a lasting impact in the areas of Protestant Christianity, scholarship, and education.

Frederick Augustus Klein (1827–1903), or F. A. Klein as he is called in much of the literature, was a Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary in the Middle East. He is remembered for his 1868 discovery of the Moabite Stone, which dates from about 840 B.C. It gives qualified confirmation of some events mentioned in the biblical Book of Kings.

The Church of the Redeemer is the largest church by membership of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and is located in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Church of the Redeemer is home to an Arab congregation as well as a meeting place of the English-Speaking Anglican Congregation (ESAC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Missionary Society in the Middle East and North Africa</span>

The Church Missionary Society in the Middle East and North Africa, operated through branch organisations, such as the Mediterranean Mission, with the mission extending to Palestine, Iran (Persia), Iraq, Egypt, Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and the Sudan. The missions were financed by the CMS with the local organisation of a mission usually being under the oversight of the Bishop of the Anglican diocese in which the CMS mission operated. The CMS made an important contribution to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

References

  1. ↑ "Anglican Church". Nazareth Cultural & Tourism Association. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
  2. ↑ Miller, Duane Alexander (October 2012). "Christ Church (Anglican) in Nazareth: a brief history with photographs" (PDF). St Francis Magazine. 8 (5): 696–703. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  3. ↑ Zeller, John (1870). "A Sunday in Nazareth". The Church Missionary Gleaner. 20: 91. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  4. ↑ Cohen, Hillel (2009). Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948. University of California Press. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-520-25989-8.
  5. ↑ Miller, Duane (June 2012). "The First Church in the Diocese of Jerusalem". Anglican and Episcopal History. 81 (2): 211–218. Retrieved 16 December 2014.

32°42′08.5″N35°17′45.5″E / 32.702361°N 35.295972°E / 32.702361; 35.295972

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.