The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is a Lutherandenomination that has congregations in Jordan and State of Palestine. 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 bishopisSani 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]
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]
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 HusseinofJordan. 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]
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.
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:
Dar al-Kalima Evangelical Lutheran School, Bethlehem
^Anon (1895). Der Herr baut Jerusalem. Eine Denkschrift das Werk der evangelischen Kirchen in Jerusalem (in German). Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Mitri Raheb, "Die evangelische lutherische Kirche in Palästina und Jordanien: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart", in: Dem Erlöser der Welt zur Ehre: Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Jubiläum der Einweihung der evangelischen Erlöserkirche in Jerusalem, Karl-Heinz Ronecker (ed.) on behalf of «Jerusalem-Stiftung» and «Jerusalemsverein», Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 1998, pp. 183–200, here p. 193. ISBN3-374-01706-1.
