National Evangelical Church (al-Judaide)

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Old National Evangelical Church in Aleppo in April 2010
Destroyed National Evangelical Church in Aleppo on June 12, 2013

The National Evangelical Church of Aleppo ( Arabic الكنيسة الإنجيلية الوطنية) or Arab Evangelical Church Aleppo (الكنيسة الانجيلية العربية) on the street Ǧādat al-Chandaq was the church of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon in the Syrian city ​​of Aleppo until it was deliberately destroyed by Islamist rebels on November 6, 2012 during the battle for Aleppo . The church, which was completely destroyed, was abandoned, and since Christmas 2015 a newly built church in the Sulaimaniya-Fillat district has been serving the evangelical community.

Location

The old National Evangelical Church of Aleppo stood on "Graben-Allee" (جادة الخندق, DMG Ǧādat al-Ḫandaq ) on the outskirts of the old Christian district of al-Judaide .

history

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Aleppo was founded in 1848 and had the church on ādat al-Chandaq street as the first place of worship. In 1920 the Presbyterian parish of Aleppo became a member of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon .

The church on Ǧādat al-Chandaq was used for the services of the National Evangelical Church Congregation in Aleppo until July 2012 - during the time of the civil war . In July 2012, when the Christians came to the service, they encountered several men who forcibly threw them out of the building. Soon afterwards, the back yard of the church was shelled and destroyed. In November 2012, the opposition fighters planted bombs from below and destroyed the whole building. Videos of the church's rebels surfaced on the Internet, calling it the “Armenian Church” that had been destroyed by government troops. However, the pastor of the Arab Evangelical Congregation in Aleppo, Ibrahim Nseir , made it clear on the spot that the type of bombs made it clear that it was not the government army but terrorists who were responsible for the demolition. Such tunnel bombs, deployed from tunnels, were often used by the rebels, as was the case here at the Protestant church later when the Carlton Hotel from the 19th century was destroyed in May 2014 with 30 to 50 dead.

The targeted destruction of the Protestant Church by the armed opposition sparked outrage in Syria and around the world. According to pastor Ibrahim Nseir, the Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmad Badr ad-Din Hassun was the first to contact him and announce his support in rebuilding the church. The church in the center, which was completely destroyed, was abandoned by the parish, but the property remained the property of the church. The Syrian government helped the evangelical community to build a new church in another part of the city away from the still hotly contested city center. The community acquired land in the Sulaimaniya-Fillat district behind the Chaldean St. Joseph Cathedral on Chalil-al-Hindawi Street (شارع خليل الهنداوي, DMG Šāriʿ Ḫalīl-al-Hindāwi ). In 2015, the new church was built within a few months and opened for the Christmas service on December 25, 2015.

During the years of the Battle of Aleppo (2012 to 2016), a large number of people left the city and the number of Evangelical Christians in the Aleppo National Evangelical Church decreased from 500 to 80. However, Pastor Ibrahim Nseir and his wife Tami decided to stay with their three children and rebuild the church. Nseir and his family have been threatened several times by the rebels. Armed opposition fighters planted bombs on his home to kill him and his family, but the mechanism failed. Despite the many parishioners who had fled, the number of people attending the service increased by half, according to Nseir, initially in an overcrowded private room and from the end of 2015 in the new church.

After the Islamists were expelled from Aleppo in December 2016, the authorities began to plan for the reconstruction of the city, whereby stricter monument protection rules apply to the city center, which also includes the old church property on “Graben-Allee” . This includes the restoration of the old facade, but also includes the use of the building to be rebuilt for religious purposes. The National Evangelical Church in Aleppo, however, already has a new, modern church building elsewhere. The General Secretary of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Church in Syria and Lebanon, Joseph Kassab , announced on behalf of the Church in April 2019 that he wanted to set up a hostel here, but at the same time room for prayer and meditation to leave, also to meet the requirements.

Architecture and equipment

The National Evangelical Church of Aleppo from 1848 was an almost cuboid, two-story church building made of dark stones with a flat roof .

Two panels with quotations from the Bible were placed above the pulpit: on the right side the Our Father ( Mt 6 : 9-13  NAV ) and on the left Psalm 23 ( Ps 23  NAV ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ibrahim Nseir (with Tulsi Gabbard ): Voices of Syria - Rev. Ibrahim Nseir of the Arab Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Aleppo. Youtube, January 28, 2017.
  2. ^ National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. World Council of Churches , accessed May 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ Barak Barfi: In Aleppo, I saw why Assad is winning. Politico, March 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ 'Life is horrible': Syria's Christians fear total genocide. Fox News, May 15, 2016.
  5. ^ MCC's Syrian church partners provide relief, hope. Buildings crumble but faith remains. MCC News Service, July 15, 2018.
  6. ↑ Ted Kulik: Lebanon / Syria # 11: Five Hundred Percent. The Outreach Foundation, February 13, 2019.
  7. ^ Joseph Kassab : Rev. Joseph Kassab lays out the vision for the old church site in Aleppo Youtube, April 10, 2019.
  8. ↑ Ibrahim Nseir : The Outreach Foundation - In Aleppo, Rev. Ibrahim Nseir finds Psalm 23, Youtube, April 3, 2019.

Coordinates: 36 ° 12 ′ 16.9 ″  N , 37 ° 9 ′ 11.8 ″  E