National Evangelical Church of Homs

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The National Evangelical Church of Homs ( Arabic الكنيسة الانجيلية الوطنية المشيخية بحمص) is the church of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon on the western edge of the old town of the Syrian city ​​of Homs .

Location

The National Evangelical Church is in the northern section of the street al-Abrar ("the righteous", الأبرار, DMG al-ʿAbrār ) on the western edge of the old town of Homs across from the Jamal-ad-Din Mosque (جامع جمال الدين) and as the direct southern neighbor of the Dhi'l-Kala'-al-Himyari Mosque (مسجد ذي الكلاع الحميري), barely 100 m south of the Church of Mary Queen of Peace . To the northeast, also less than 100 m away, is the Jesuit monastery (دير الآباء اليسوعيين) with his school, where the grave of the Jesuit father Frans van der Lugt, who was executed by rebels from the al-Nusra Front in 2014, is located. The National Evangelical School of Homs is not in the immediate vicinity , but around 700 m further south.

history

Since the 1850s, Presbyterian missionaries from the USA were present in Homs, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire , purchased a church property and founded a primary school there in 1855. The church building was also built during this time. The school was expanded into a secondary school in 1905. In 1920 the Presbyterian parishes in Syria and Lebanon founded the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon .

During the civil war in Syria on February 26, 2012, the so-called "Black Sunday", an armed rebel group attacked several churches in Homs, including the National Evangelical Church in Homs, the roof of which was destroyed by a direct hit with a rocket. The church library with its numerous Bibles burned down, as did all the wooden parts - doors, windows and the cross. However, a church member was able to save the archive from destruction. Large parts of the city came under the control of the rebels - including the National Evangelical Church - and around 50,000 Christians left the city. As a result, the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon organized aid for the refugees. The heavily damaged building of the National Evangelical Church now served the Islamist rebels as a military registration point , and the fighters were taught radical Islamist teachings in the basement. The fighting over Homs lasted until 2014. Like the Protestant church, the two neighboring mosques and the school of the nearby Jesuit monastery also suffered severe damage. From 2015, after the rebels withdrew from Homs, the Evangelical Synod's help consisted of rebuilding 44 houses in the old town of Homs. In 2016, the church expanded its aid to include school and training materials, heating and rental costs, and medical aid.

With the support of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk , the church was quickly rebuilt, as was the church library, the associated school and the old people's home. The first service in the reconstructed church was held on December 25, 2015. In October 2017, the National Evangelical Congregation of Homs, led by Pastor Mofid Karajili, still had around 500 members, of whom an average of 100 attended the Sunday services. Many of them had returned to Homs from the surrounding area or other places. In the words of Pastor Mofid Karajili, the church has become a living place of hope, where it is his God-given task to be there and “to sow hope”. Mofid Karajili comes from al-Qamishli , studied theology in Cairo and was a Protestant pastor from 2004 to 2011 in Idlib , a city from which all Christian life has disappeared since it was taken by Islamist rebels in March 2015 . In 2011 he came from Idlib to the evangelical community in Homs. At the end of 2018, health problems forced the 40-year-old pastor to give up his job, so that the Homs congregation lost him. He then wrote a master's thesis in Beirut ( Lebanon ) on the subject of "The Historical Jesus ".

architecture

Like other Protestant churches in Syria, the National Evangelical Church of Homs is kept simple. It has a rectangular floor plan and a gable roof . The building stands almost parallel in a north-south direction, i.e. on the eaves, to the street al-Abrar to the east. On the southeast corner of the church building stands the small, open bell tower with a black and white pattern through light and dark bricks with a square cross-section and a three-dimensional, three-bar cross on its flat roof. Due to the higher development in the area, the building is rather inconspicuous.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reem Lababidi: The National Evangelical School in Homs. Sweet Homs, 2018.
  2. ^ National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. World Council of Churches , accessed May 27, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. Global Ministries, 2016, accessed June 29, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b NESSL update and Advent wishes - 2015. Global Ministries, December 1, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b Under the ruins - life! - Evangelical in Homs. Gustav-Adolf-Werk , October 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b Enno Haaks: “We cannot afford hopelessness”. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Homs is a place of hope - not just for Christians. Gustav-Adolf-Werk , Evangelical Worldwide 1/2018.
  7. ↑ Syrian pastor: "We still have hope" - About the person: Mofid Karajili. Landeskirche Hannover, March 5, 2020.

Coordinates: 34 ° 43 '36.9 "  N , 36 ° 43' 9.8"  E