Embrace the Middle East

Last updated

Embrace the Middle East is a charity, originally founded in 1854 as a Christian mission to the Ottoman Empire and now active in the successor states with projects in healthcare, education and community development.

Contents

History

The society was set up in 1854 by a group of English evangelical philanthropists including Sir Culling Eardley and Lord Shaftesbury as the Turkish Missions' Aid Society, its purpose being to support Armenian Christians in Turkey. A supporter magazine, The Star in the East, was first published in 1883. [1]

In 1893, as its activities outside Turkey developed, the society changed its name to Bible Lands Missions Aid Society. In 1962 it changed its name again to Bible Lands Society, then in 1996 to BibleLands and finally in 2012 to Embrace the Middle East. [1]

Archives of the society are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. [2]

Political stance

Embrace is broadly sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians and has been attacked as such by pro-Israeli NGO Monitor. [3]

Related Research Articles

A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as educational or hospital work. Sometimes individuals are sent and are called missionaries, and historically may have been based in mission stations. When groups are sent, they are often called mission teams and they do mission trips. There are a few different kinds of mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and those that simply help people in need. Some people choose to dedicate their whole lives to mission. Missionaries preach the Christian faith, and provide humanitarian aid. Christian doctrines permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion. However, Christian missionaries are implicated in the genocide of indigenous peoples. Around 100,000 native people in California, U.S., or 1/3 of the native population, are said to have died due to missions.

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

Christians in Bangladesh account for 0.30% of the nation's population as of 2022 census. Together with Judaism and Buddhism, they account for 1% of the population. Islam accounts for 91.04% of the country's religion, followed by Hinduism at 7.95% as per 2022 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Mission Society</span> British mission society

The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200-year history. The society has also given its name "CMS" to a number of daughter organisations around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, which have now become independent.

<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 Afghanistan</span>

Christians have historically comprised a small community in Afghanistan. The total number of Christians in Afghanistan is currently estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 according to International Christian Concern. Almost all Afghan Christians are converts from Islam. The Pew Research Center estimates that 40,000 Afghan Christians were living in Afghanistan in 2010. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan did not recognize any Afghan citizen as being a Christian, with the exception of many expatriates. Christians of Muslim background communities can be found in Afghanistan, estimated between 500-8,000, or between 10,000 to 12,000.

Karl Gottlieb Pfander (1803–1865), spelt also as Carl Gottlieb Pfander or C.G. Pfander, was a Lutheran Christian priest, missionary and apologist; he served as a missionary in Central Asia and Trans-Caucasus under the Basel Mission, and as a polemicist to the North-Western Provinces of India under the Church Missionary Society. He was known for converting Muslims to Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haystack Prayer Meeting</span> 1806 meeting in Williamstown, Massachusetts, US

The Haystack Prayer Meeting, held in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in August 1806, is viewed by many scholars as the seminal event for the development of American Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century. Missions are still supported today by American churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Protestant Christianity</span> Protestants of Eastern Christendom

The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Occident, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and yet keep elements of Eastern Christianity, to varying degrees. Some of these denominations came into being when existing Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship. Some others are the result of reformations of Orthodox beliefs and practices, inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries. Some Eastern Protestant Churches are in communion with similar Western Protestant Churches. However, there is no universal communion between the various Eastern Protestant churches. This is due to the diverse polities, practices, liturgies, and orientations of the denominations which fall under this category, as can be seen in Western Protestantism.

The Protestant Episcopal Church Mission was a Christian missionary initiative of the Episcopal Church that was involved in sending and providing financial support to lay and ordained mission workers in growing population centers in the west of the United States as well as overseas in China, Liberia and Japan during the second half of the 19th Century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malteser International</span>

Malteser International is an international non-governmental aid agency for humanitarian aid of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Developed in 2005 from the foreign aid service of Malteser Germany, and having the status of an independent eingetragener Verein since 2013, the agency has more than 50 years of experience in humanitarian relief. It currently implements around 100 projects in some 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and the Americas. The organization's General Secretariat is located in Cologne, Germany with regional headquarters for Europe and the Americas located in Cologne and New York City respectively. The membership of Malteser International consists of 27 national associations and priories of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who are responsible for supporting the organization within their jurisdictions.

Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, 3rd Baronet was a British Christian campaigner for religious freedom and for the Protestant cause, one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance.

The National Council of Churches in India is an ecumenical forum for Protestant and Orthodox churches in India.

The 15th century marked the transition from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period in Western Christendom. It was dominated by the spread of the Italian Renaissance and its philosophy of Renaissance Humanism from its heartland in Northern and Central Italy across the whole of Western Europe.

NGO Monitor is a right-wing non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem that reports on international NGO activity from a pro-Israel perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald M. Steinberg</span> Israeli political scientists and advocate

Gerald M. Steinberg. a professor of politics at Bar Ilan University, is an Israeli academic, political scientist, and political activist. He is founder and president of NGO Monitor, a policy analysis think tank focusing on non-governmental organizations.

Christian humanitarian aid is work performed by Christian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to alleviate the suffering of people around the world. Humanitarian aid occurs in areas where some churches donate financial resources.

Christian political theology in the Middle East is a religious response by Christian leaders and scholars to political problems. Political theologians try to balance the demands of a tumultuous region with the delicate but long history of Christianity in the Middle East. This has yielded a diversity of political theology disproportionate to the small size of Middle Eastern Christian minorities. The region's importance to Christians worldwide – both for history and doctrinal authority for many denominations – also shapes the political theologies of the Middle East.

The Palestinian NGOs Network is an umbrella organization of Palestinian non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Palestinian territories formed to enhance coordination, consultation and cooperation between member NGOs and to strengthen Palestinian civil society and contribute to the establishment of a Palestinian state. PNGO was formed in September 1993, and as of January 2020, had 135 member NGOs operating in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

The Iraqi Christian Relief Council (ICRC) is an Assyrian-based Christian nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by Assyrian activist Juliana Taimoorazy. The ICRC describes its primary purpose as being to advance the humanitarian and political protection of persecuted Assyrian Christians who live in post-war Iraq, whose population has dwindled from 1,500,000 in 2003 to about 150,000 just 17 years later in 2020 due to ongoing persecution and instability in their homeland.

Action For Humanity is a UK-based global charity originally founded by a group of doctors to provide assistance and aid to those devastated by conflict. Action For Humanity is the parent charity of Syria Relief, the largest Syria-focused NGO in the United Kingdom. Action For Humanity has operations in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and Pakistan. In 2022, the organisation operated 306 schools inside Syria. The charity is a large recipient of United Nations funding.

References

  1. 1 2 Embrace the Middle East website: history
  2. "UoB Calmview5: Search results". calmview.bham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  3. NGO Monitor listing