Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem

For the church in Atlanta, see Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (Atlanta).
The interior of the Church of the Redeemer

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (Hebrew: כנסיית הגואל, Arabic: الكنيسة اللوثرية في القدس, German: Erlöserkirche) is the second Protestant church in Jerusalem (the first being Christ Church near Jaffa Gate). It is a property of the Evangelical Jerusalem Foundation, one of the three foundations of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in the Holy Land. Built between 1893 and 1898 by the architect Paul Ferdinand Groth following the designs of Friedrich Adler, the Church of the Redeemer currently houses Lutheran congregations that worship in Arabic, German, Danish, and English. The Church, together with the adjoining provost building, is the seat of the Provost of the German Protestant Ministries in the Holy Land ("Evangelisch in Jerusalem"). It also serves as the headquarters of the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, since this Arabic-speaking (Palestinian) church became independent from the German provost in 1979.[1]

Built on land given to King William I of Prussia (after 1870 Kaiser Wilhelm I) on the occasion of the latter's participation at the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869 by Sultan Abdülhamid of the Ottoman Empire, the church was constructed from 1892 to 1898. The location had been the site of the old church of St. Mary Minor.[2] In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a trip to Jerusalem to personally dedicate the new church.[3] For the dedication of the church, the Kaiser entered the city on horse back through two specially made ceremonial arches, one a gift of the Ottoman Empire. The church was dedicated on Reformation Day, 1898. At the dedication, Wilhelm said:

From Jerusalem came the light in splendor from which the German nation became great and glorious; and what the Germanic peoples have become, they became under the banner of the cross, the emblem of self-sacrificing charity.[4]

Redeemer Church was closed for services from the end of May 1940 until 1950, when first the Palestinian Lutheran congregation resumed services, and later the Evangelical congregation of German language followed.[5]

In the garden next to the church is a memorial marking the location of the crusader headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St. John.[6]

The Church of the Redeemer around 1900.
Emperor Wilhelm II, who was the Supreme Governor of the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces, and Empress Augusta Victoria after the inauguration of the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem (Reformation Day, 31 October 1898).
  1. ^ Ronecker, Karl-Heinz, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Jerusalem, Verlag Schnell+Steiner, Regensburg 1997, p. 2
  2. ^ Adrian J. Boas, Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusaders, (Routledge, 2001), p.125.
  3. ^ Marian Kent, Great Powers and the End of the Ottoman Empire, (Routledge, 1996) p.112.
  4. ^ Alfred Sidney Johnson, et al., The Cyclopedic review of current history, (Garretson, Cox & Co., 1898) p. 935
  5. ^ Dem Erlöser der Welt zur Ehre: Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Jubiläum der Einweihung der evangelischen Erlöserkirche in Jerusalem, Karl-Heinz Ronecker (ed.) on behalf of the 'Jerusalem-Stiftung' and 'Jerusalemsverein', Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 1998, p. 247. ISBN 3-374-01706-1.
  6. ^ Abraham Ezra Millgram, Jerusalem Curiosities, (Jewish Publication Society, 1990) p.30.