Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem


The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem is the Anglican presence in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon; it is a part of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, and based at St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem. The diocese covers 7,000 Anglicans, with 35 service institutions, 29 parishes, 1500 employees, 200 hospital beds and 6,000 students. Today, Anglicans constitute a large portion of Jerusalem's Christians.
The bishop of the diocese was styled Bishop in Jerusalem until 2014, and since then has been styled Archbishop in Jerusalem.

History

Nineteenth century

The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East began as a number of missionary posts of the Church Mission Society in Cyprus, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. The Church Mission Society continues to provide the province with lay mission partners and ordained chaplains, but now the majority of its ministry is drawn from local congregations.
During the 1820s, CMS began to prepare for permanent missionary stations in the region.
In 1833, a missionary station was established in Jerusalem with the support of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. In 1839, the building of the Church of Saint Mark, Alexandria was begun.
On 5 October 1841, the Jerusalem Bishopric Act was passed, and on 7 November, Michael Alexander, a converted rabbi, was consecrated a bishop, to serve as the first "Bishop in Jerusalem". His diocese originally covered the mission stations in the Middle East and Egypt, and was a joint effort with the united Evangelical Church in Prussia for Anglicans and united Calvinists and Lutherans — see Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem.
In 1849, Christ Church, Jerusalem near Jaffa Gate became the first Anglican/Lutheran church in the city, and in 1871 Christ Church in Nazareth was consecrated.
The Anglo-Prussian Union ceased to function in 1881, and no bishop was appointed between 1881 and 1887, and from 1887, the missionary effort continued solely under Anglican auspices.
In 1888, George Blyth established the Jerusalem and the East Mission which was instrumental in raising funds for projects and missions throughout the Middle East. Saint George's Cathedral was built in 1898 in Jerusalem as a central focus for the diocese.

Twentieth century

Although the diocese began as a foreign missionary organisation, it quickly established itself as part of the Palestinian community. In 1905, the Palestine Native Church Council was established to give local Arabs more say in the running of the church. This led to an increase in the number of Arab clergy serving the diocese.
In 1920, the Diocese of Egypt and the Sudan was formed, separate from the Diocese of Jerusalem, with Llewelyn Gwynne as its first bishop. In the 1920s the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem founded St. George's College as a training seminary for local clergy.
In 1957, the Bishop in Jerusalem was elevated to the rank of an archbishop, albeit under the primatial authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Jerusalem had metropolitan oversight of the entire area of the current province with the addition of the Sudan. In that same year, Najib Cubain was consecrated Bishop of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, the first Arab bishop, assistant to the Archbishop of Jerusalem. During the 1950s, political unrest in Egypt left the diocese in the care of four Egyptian clergy under the oversight of the Archbishop of Jerusalem.
In 1976, the structure of the Anglican church in the region was overhauled, with the Diocese of Jerusalem becoming an ordinary bishopric, and one of four dioceses forming the Province of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Archbishop of Canterbury ceased to have metropolitan authority over the diocese, which came to be held by a rotating Presiding Bishop of the Province and the Central Synod, comprising the four dioceses. When a bishop reaches the age of 68, a coadjutor bishop is required to be elected to work alongside the bishop for two years, before the bishop's retirement at age 70.
Also in 1976, Faik Haddad became the first Palestinian Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem.

Diocese of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria

In July 1957, the Diocese of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria was carved out of the existing Diocese of Jerusalem. Its only bishop was Najib Cubain; the diocese was reabsorbed upon the provincial reorganisation of 1976.

Bishops and Archbishops

From 1957 to 1976 the ordinary held the rank and title of Archbishop of Jerusalem. In 1976 the new province of Jerusalem and the Middle East was created, with four dioceses, and a Presiding Bishop elected from amongst them, but the Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem also bore the title Bishop in Jerusalem as a representative in the Holy Land of the Anglican Communion.
In 2014 the synod debated this international representative role, and determined that it was sufficiently important to restore the status of an archbishopric, with the bishop to be re-styled Archbishop in Jerusalem. The Anglican Communion office subsequently re-titled the Bishop of Jerusalem in its directory as Archbishop in Jerusalem. This is a non-metropolitan archbishopric, although the holder is eligible to be elected as metropolitan.

Current archbishop

The current, fourteenth, bishop of the diocese and Archbishop in Jerusalem is Suheil Dawani, who was elected Coadjutor Bishop on June 15, 2005 and was officially installed as Bishop at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem on April 15, 2007. He has been Archbishop in Jerusalem since the restoration of the archbishopric in 2014.
Dawani succeeded Riah Abu El-Assal, who retired on March 31, 2007 at the prescribed retirement age of 70 years. Dawani and the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem have had to take legal action against Riah over the ownership of the Bishop Riah Educational Campus, a school established by Riah when he was bishop.
In August 2010, Israel declined to renew the residency permits for Dawani and his family, claiming the bishop had been engaged in fraudulent land deals on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. After legal proceedings were commenced and following political pressure from a number of Christian churches and leaders, the permits were renewed on 26 September 2011.

List of Anglican Bishops in Jerusalem

Bishop in Jerusalem :
Bishop in Jerusalem :
Archbishop in Jerusalem:
Bishop in Jerusalem:
Archbishop in Jerusalem:
On 14 June 2020, Hosam Naoum, Dean of St George’s Cathedral, was consecrated a bishop, to serve as coadjutor Bishop of Jerusalem; he will automatically succeed Dawani as Archbishop in Jerusalem upon his retirement in 2021.

Congregations

The parish churches of the diocese include: