Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is an Evangelical Church that extends geographically to Jordan and the Holy Land . It goes back to German and English missionaries in the middle of the 19th century. It was officially constituted in 1959. Since 1979 it has been led by its own bishop, currently Ibrahim Azar .

history

The history of the Church goes back to the middle of the 19th century when German and English missionaries came to Palestine . In 1851 Theodor Fliedner and Kaiserswerther deaconesses founded the Talitha Kumi girls' boarding school in Jerusalem . In 1860 the son of a pietist from Württemberg, Johann Ludwig Schneller , built the Syrian orphanage there for Christian boys from Lebanon who were orphans after a massacre of Christians. These mission institutions were supported by the Jerusalem Association. As a result, Christian congregations emerged in what was then Palestine, such as in Jerusalem, Bethlehem , Beit Jala , Beit Sahour , Ramallah and Amman , which united to form the "Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan" (ELCJ). At that time the West Bank was under Jordanian sovereignty.

The ELCJ was officially constituted on May 17, 1959 when it was officially recognized by the Jordanian King Hussein . Until 1979 the church was led by the respective provost of the Evangelical German Language Congregations in Jerusalem . An Arab bishop has led the church since 1979. On January 14, 2005, the Synod of the ELCJ unanimously decided to add “ and in the Holy Land ” to the name .

Bishops

meaning

The ELCJHL belongs to the minority of Christians in the Holy Land. This group comprises two percent of the total population in the Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem . The ELCJHL has 2,500 members. The Church has schools in Bethlehem , Beit Sahour and Ramallah with a total of 1,300 students. For the Talitha Kumi school near Beit Jala (900 students), the ELCJHL shares educational responsibility with the school authority, the Berliner Missionswerk . The ordination of women is possible in the ELCJHL.

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Ibrahim Azar the new bishop of the Lutheran Church in the Holy Land , press release January 19, 2017, accessed March 13, 2017
  2. ^ LWF Statistics - Israel The Lutheran World Federation