The Episcopal Church in Jordan: Identity, Liturgy, and Mission (original) (raw)

Christian Churches and Arab Christians in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Citizenship, Ecclesiastical Identity and Roles in the Jordanian Political Field

This study aims at reconsidering the current position of Christian Churches and Arab Christians in Jordan, by analyzing the specific issues of ecclesiastic identity, citizenship and political roles while contextualizing this study within the broader Jordanian state and “nation” building process of the 20th century. The objective of this study is to offer an analytical overview of these recent historical vicissitudes, by identifying the developments and changes experienced by Christian Churches and Arab Christians as an integral part of contemporary Jordanian history. This inevita- bly entails the analysis of the community dimension and how it has been structured and integrated within the Hashemite state system. The overall aim of this paper is to highlight possible new paths of analysis regarding the Christian presence as part of the history of the Hashemite state.

The Archdiocese of Petra and Philadelphia and the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan. Modern history and ecclesial identity

Journal of Eastern Christian Studies

The paper aims to analyze the development of the Melkite presence within the territory of the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan between the two World Wars. Encompassing the religious meaning of this dynamic, studying the development of Melkite missionary institutions helps to point out important aspects of how the Hashemite Emirate’s state-building process affected the ecclesial development of Christian Church institutions within Transjordan. The project of creating a new Melkite diocese or a vicariate in Transjordan represented an important event in the history of the Melkite Church within the Near East, describing the interaction and confrontation between the Holy See and the Melkite Church regarding the reconfiguration and development of the regional Melkite ecclesial organization according to the new socio-political balances of power, modern state boundaries and the Holy See’s hierarchical system.

An Introduction to the Convention of Evangelical Churches in Israel

An article introducing the genesis, structure, challenges and opportunities of the first indigenous, trans-denominational Arab Israeli evangelical association: the Convention of Evangelical Christians in Israel (CECI: despite the name, it is currently an almost exclusively Arab affair), also known in Arabic as the "majmah".

The Constitution of Christian Communal Boundaries and Spheres in Jordan

In a historical perspective, and with a focus on the years immediately following independence, this article aims to clarify how Christian communal spheres were constituted in Jordan between the inception of the state and the early 1970s. This will be accomplished by exploring the dynamic relations between the Hashemite state and the two main Christian communities present in Jordan through secondary sources, several of them produced by members of these communities and through interviews conducted in Jordan between 1996 and 1998. Beyond historiography, this article reflects on the factors that shaped different boundaries for the Orthodox and Catholic spheres with a view to understanding their respective openness or closeness toward the Jordanian Muslim-majority society at large.

Introduction to the Convention of Evangelical Christians in Israel

Mary's Well Occasional Papers, 2014

Azar Ajaj and Philip Sumpter outline the genesis, structure, challenges and opportunities of the first indigenous, trans-denominational Arab Israeli evangelical association in Israel: the Convention of Evangelical Christians in Israel (CECI), also known in Arabic as the "majmah".

Blessed Is the Kingdom: The Divine Liturgy as Missional Act

The Asbury Journal, 2019

In the last 20 years, the Protestant Church has undergone a revolution in its self-understanding through the Missional Church movement. However, with its emphasis on changing forms of worship and on sending people out from the Church, the Missional Church discussion has been inaccessible (or even antithetical) to Eastern Orthodox Christians. This paper proposes a new way for Orthodox to enter the conversation, to contribute in a spirit of collaboration. With the goal of overcoming East/West theological differences by recognizing the inherent missionality of Orthodoxy's most central service, the Divine Liturgy, this paper will: explain the centrality of the Divine Liturgy to Orthodoxy, describe the general missional flow of the Divine Liturgy, and give specific examples of ways that various parts of the Divine Liturgy directly contribute to the Inward-Outward missional nature of the Divine Liturgy. Finally, some conclusions will be offered as to what the Divine Liturgy as a Missional Act might mean in the daily lives of the Faithful.