Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land | |
---|---|
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Lutheran |
Polity | Episcopal |
Leader | Sani Ibrahim Azar |
Associations | LWF, Middle East Council of Churches, WCC |
Region | Jordan, Palestinian Authority |
Origin | 1959 Jordan |
Congregations | 6 |
Members | 2,500 |
Primary schools | 4 |
Official website | http://www.elcjhl.org/ |
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is a Lutheran denomination that has congregations in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. First recognized as an autonomous religious community by King Hussein in 1959, [1] the church currently has 2,500 members [2] in six congregations.
The current bishop is Sani Ibrahim Azar, [3] who was elected in 2017 and consecrated as bishop on 14 January 2018. The bishop emeritus, Munib Younan, retains an official role. Younan is the former president of the Lutheran World Federation (2010–2017), [4] and remains a member of the ELCJHL Council. [5]
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has its origins in the arrival of German and English Protestant missionaries to Jerusalem in the mid 19th century. [1] Protestant missions had begun in the early 19th century, but Protestant Christians had no legal protection in the Ottoman Empire, unlike the Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox, who were legally protected by treaty. [6] In 1840, the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV sent his diplomat, Christian von Bunsen to present a proposal to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom for the establishment of a joint Protestant bishopric under the protection of both Prussia and the United Kingdom. [7]
An agreement was reached to establish a joint bishopric of the Anglican Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Prussia, comprising Lutheran, Calvinist and united Protestant congregations, known as the Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem and this was facilitated by the passing of the Bishops in Foreign Countries Act 1841. [6] The first Bishop was a Jewish convert, Michael Solomon Alexander, who arrived in 1842.
In 1851, Theodor Fliedner was invited to bring four deaconesses to begin a hospital and the first formal school for girls in the Levant, Talitha Kumi, was set up in Jerusalem. In 1860, Johann Ludwig Schneller set up the Syrian Orphanage in Jerusalem for children who were made homeless or orphaned by civil war in the region. [1]
A provisional chapel for the use of the Prussian Protestants was erected in 1871 on land granted by Sultan Abdülaziz in the Muristan area of Jerusalem. [6] Due to political and theological differences, the joint bishopric was finally abolished in 1886 and the Evangelical mission continued work independently of the Anglicans. [6] Lutherans focused primarily on social work and education while the Anglicans focused on evangelism. [1]
In 1898, the newly constructed Church of the Redeemer was officiated by Kaiser Wilhelm II and served as the headquarters of the Evangelical mission.
After the Second World War the World Lutheran Federation (WLF) took care of the remnants of the German-initiated Evangelical missions, combining Lutheran, Calvinist and united Protestant efforts. Due to the influence of the WLF the Lutheran aspect prevailed. [8] In 1947, the Lutheran mission was granted autonomy from the Protestant Church in Germany and in 1959 was recognised as an autonomous religious community by King Hussein of Jordan. The church was then officially named the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ). The ELCJ had by then grown beyond Jerusalem and had set up congregations in Ramallah and Amman to serve Lutheran Palestinians who were refugees of the Arab–Israeli conflict. [1]
In 1974, the ELCJ joined the WLF and in 1979 the first Palestinian bishop, Daoud Haddad, was elected to lead the church. In 2005, the Synod of the ELCJ decided to rename the church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land to more accurately reflect the work and ministry of the church that spans Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. [1]
Sally Azar was ordained on 22 January 2023 by the church, [9] in a ceremony at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, making her the first female Palestinian pastor in the Holy Land. [10] [11]
The ELCJHL holds episcopal polity. The Bishop leads the central church structures and is the chief pastor. Bishops are consecrated within the historic Apostolic succession.
At present, there are 6 congregations of the ELCJHL: [12]
The ELCJHL runs four primary schools and other educational projects that serve the broader educational needs of the Palestinian people as a whole. The four primary schools are:
The ELCJHL also actively supports the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon.
The ELCJHL participates actively in ecumenical relationships through: [13]
The ELCJHL also works in partnership with: [14]
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.
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.
Beit Jala is a Palestinian Christian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in the West Bank. Beit Jala is located 10 km (6.2 mi)10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem, at 825 meters (2,707 ft) altitude. In 2017, Beit Jala had 13,484 inhabitants according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. About 80% of the population were Christians and about 20% Muslims.
Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur is a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population was of 13,281 in 2017, consisting of approximately 80% Christians and 20% Muslims.
Munib Younan is a Palestinian Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL).
Augusta Victoria Compound is Community hospital and Church complex on the northern side of Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and one of six hospitals of the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network. The compound was built in 1907–1914 by the Empress Augusta Victoria Foundation as a center for the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine, in addition to the slightly older Church of the Redeemer from Jerusalem's Old City. Apart from the hospital, today the complex also includes the German Protestant Church of the Ascension with a c. 50 metre high belltower, a meeting centre for pilgrims and tourists, an interreligious kindergarten and a café, as well as the Jerusalem branch of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology.
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.
Younan may refer to the following:
The Anglo-Prussian bishopric in Jerusalem was a Protestant episcopal see based in Jerusalem between 1841 and 1886. It was a joint venture of the Church of England and the Evangelical Church in Prussia.
The Holy See and Palestine established formal diplomatic relations in 2015 through the mutual signing of the Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine. In 2017, a Palestinian embassy to the Holy See was opened.
The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer is a Lutheran church in Jerusalem. 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 Church of the Redeemer is the second Protestant church in Jerusalem.
Immanuel Church is a Protestant church in the American–German Colony neighbourhood of Tel Aviv in Israel.
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.
Talitha Kumi - German Evangelical Lutheran School, is a German international school in Beit Jala, West Bank, in the State of Palestine. The school, located in proximity to Bethlehem and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Jerusalem, serves Kindergarten, and primary school through senior high school level. Students may obtain the Tawjihi and/or the Deutsche Internationale Abiturprüfung (DIAP). The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land operates the school. The name "Talitha Kumi" originates from Aramaic words which mean "Get up, girl!" or "Little girl, I tell you to get up," a phrase stated by Jesus Christ when he resurrected Jairus's daughter. As of 2015 Rolf Lindemann is the principal of Talitha Kumi.
The Egyptian Council of Churches is an organization representing different churches in Egypt, including the Coptic Orthodox Church, as well as Coptic Catholic, Evangelical, Coptic Pentecostal, Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches. The council's formation was announced in January 2013. Its first meeting was held on February 18, 2013, at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, and was chaired by Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria. Representatives chose Tawadros II as the council's first president. The presidency is set to rotate every three years between the different church leaders.
Dr. Sani Ibrahim "Barhoum" Azar is the fourth and current Palestinian Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
Sally Azar born 1996 in Jerusalem, is a Palestinian pastor. She was ordained on January 22, 2023, by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land in a ceremony at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, making her the first female Palestinian pastor in the Holy Land. Azar is the daughter of bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar.
Munther Isaac is a Palestinian pastor, author, and theologian based in the West Bank.
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