St. Mark Street 9, Jerusalem 91140, P.O. Box 14076, 91140 Jerusalem
Call us +972-(0)-2-62 66 88
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St. Mark Street 9, Jerusalem 91140, P.O. Box 14076, 91140 Jerusalem
Call us +972-(0)-2-62 66 88
Our community in Israel, Palestine and Jordan is a foreign church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Here are people who are in the region in the short or long term: pilgrims and tourists traveling, young people in a temporary volunteer service, diplomats, development workers, teachers – but also people who have settled entirely in the Holy Land and are married in part to Arab or Jewish spouses.
Our services, community evenings, talks, choirs and concerts are always open to all visitors, pilgrims and tourists.
Step into the Church of the Redeemer and let the tranquility and clarity of the church space take its toll! Inaugurated in 1898, the church was completely renovated in 1970 and remodeled. Thus, among other things, the painting of the walls were removed to the Christ head in the apse, a valuable mosaic work, and altar and pulpit were thoroughly changed. The stained glass windows were redesigned by the Jewish glass painter Anna Andersch-Marcus. They represent the word of Psalm 130: “Out of the depth, I call to you, my lord. Lord, hear my voice!”
The organ, which today is on a gallery above the main entrance (its predecessor stood in the northern aisle), was created in 1971 by the Berlin organ builder Karl Schule. It has 21 registers distributed over two manuals and pedal. Under the apse of the northern side aisle stands today the baptismal font; behind it a recitation cross was set up in 1998, which the artist Hubertus von Pilgrim created for the church. The icon in the apse of the southern aisle was written by the Benedictine nuns on the Mount of Olives in 1991 for the Jerusalem Ecumenical Kirchentag. It recalls the story of Noah and shows Christ as the image of the Father, as he puts the rainbow in the clouds as a sign of peace.
The Archaeological Park under the Church of the Redeemer guides the visitor “through the ages”: you can go back more than 2000 years under the nave and explore archaeological remains right up to the time of Herod the Great. You encounter a quarry used until the turn of the century, the garden area outside the New Testament Jerusalem, the rubble of 70 BC destroyed by Titus city, building remains of Adrian’s time and the medieval floor mosaic of the Church of St. Mary Latina. The archaeological park and the museum in the cloister were initiated by the German Evangelical Institute for Aged Aspects of the Holy Land, designed in conjunction with its Friends and opened in 2012. Worthwhile is also the ascent to our church tower (178 steps)! From there, there is a fantastic panoramic view over the entire old town. You are also welcome to visit our medieval cloister to the right of the church and have a look into the Johanniter chapel there.
Tradition tells that Charlemagne had already received the site on which the Church of the Redeemer stands today at the beginning of the ninth century as a gift from the Caliph Harren al-Raschid. In 1064, the property transfered into the ownership of a merchant from Amalfi. The church of Santa Maria Latina and a related convent was built. The monastic convention formed at the beginning of the Crusader period in 1099 as the Order of Hospital or Order of St. John and dedicated itself to the care of the pilgrims. With the revivalist movements of the 19th century, a new, broader interest of European Christians in the Holy Land grew. In 1869, the then crown prince Frederick William was able to take possession of the eastern part of the old Muristan for Prussia. As early as 1871, the chapel of St. John on the first floor of the cloister (probably the refectory of the Benedictines, who once inhabited the building) was restored and used for the German-speaking services. At the same time, the Berlin architect and building historian Friedrich Adler was commissioned to build the Church of the Redeemer on the ground plan of the former Romanesque church of Santa Maria Latina. In 1893, the foundation stone of the church was laid and on Reformation Day, October 31, 1898, it was inaugurated in the presence of German imperial couple.
