Aleppo National Evangelical Church

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New National Evangelical Church in Aleppo (Sulaimaniya district) on their consecration day on December 25, 2015

The National Evangelical Church of Aleppo ( Arabic الكنيسة الإنجيلية الوطنية), Arab Evangelical Church Aleppo (الكنيسة الانجيلية العربية) or National Presbyterian Evangelical Church Aleppo (الكنيسه الإنجيليه المشيخيه الوطنيه) is the Church of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon in the Syrian city ​​of Aleppo . It was erected in a short time in 2015 during the battle for Aleppo after the old church of the community in the then heavily contested district of al-Judaide was blown up by Islamist terrorists.

Location

The new National Evangelical Church of Aleppo is located in the Sulaimaniya-Fillat district behind the Chaldean Saint Joseph Cathedral on Chalil al-Hindawi Street (شارع خليل الهنداوي, DMG Šāriʿ Ḫalīl-al-Hindāwi ).

history

The National Evangelical Church of Syria and Lebanon had its beginnings at the beginning of the 19th century, when Presbyterian missionaries from Great Britain and the USA were active in the then Ottoman Empire and the first Protestant congregations with Arab believers emerged in Beirut and Hasbaya . Even before the congregation in Damascus (1860), the Presbyterian congregation was founded in Aleppo in 1848 and the first church building was the old church on "Graben-Allee" (جادة الخندق, DMG Ǧādat al-Ḫandaq ) on the edge of the Christian district of al-Judaide . In 1920 the Presbyterian parish of Aleppo (like that of Damascus) became a member of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon .

The church on Ǧādat al-Ḫandaq 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 and November 2012, the building was completely destroyed in two bomb attacks with bombs attached to the bottom of the building. The parish gave up the property with the completely destroyed church in the still hard-fought city center. 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 the property in the Sulaimaniya-Fillat district near the Chaldean Cathedral. In 2015, the new church was built within a few months and opened for the Christmas service on December 25, 2015. A good three years later, on January 9, 2019, the new Evangelical Church was consecrated in a festive service, in which representatives of other Aleppo churches also took part, but also the Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmad Badr ad-Din Hassun , the pastor of the Evangelical community, Ibrahim Nseir , who was the first to agree to support the reconstruction.

Architecture and equipment

The church building is made of light-colored stones, has a rectangular floor plan, a gable roof and a light yellow facade with elements of neo-historicism such as two white pilasters on either side of the front wall. At the vaulted main entrance is a two-column portico , the gable of which is crowned with a simple cross and on which it reads in Arabic at the top and in English below: "National Presbyterian Church of Aleppo". To the right of the entrance door hangs a plaque reminding of the completion in 2015. (The inscriptions cannot yet be seen on the photo from 2015.) There are two large pointed arched windows with cross motifs in the middle on both sides of the entrance door and four on the side walls. Candlesticks hang down from the wooden ceiling.

Other community facilities

The National Evangelical Church Congregation of Aleppo runs the school "The New Generation" (النشء الجديد), which was destroyed and looted by rebels at the end of 2012, but was reopened in summer 2014. At the end of 2014, according to Pastor Ibrahim Nseir, she had 535 students, the majority of whom were Muslim.

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. ^ MCC's Syrian church partners provide relief, hope. Buildings crumble but faith remains. MCC News Service, July 15, 2018.
  4. ^ The Arab Evangelical Church in Aleppo Inaugurates Its New Building. National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, January 9, 2019.
  5. ↑ Katja Dorothea Buck: Carrying on for a new generation. In: Schneller No. 3/2015, magazine about Christian life in the Middle East, Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools, Stuttgart 2015, p. 6f.

Coordinates: 36 ° 12 ′ 57.1 ″  N , 37 ° 9 ′ 13.6 ″  E