The
Anglican
Bishopric
Introduction
Protestantism, led by Martin Luther (1483-1546), appeared in Germany in the sixteenth century as a reform movement in the Western Church. It spread all over Europe and reached the New World. The Protestant Church was a European reformist Church to start with. It discussed and tackled the issues of society and Church in the West.
The Protestant Churche was not officially represented in the Ottoman Sultanate, because it was not part of the millets that were recognized by the sultanate. Missionaries from the various Protestant Churches came to the Ottoman Sultanate in a personal capacity or they were dispatched by some Protestant missionary societies. Coordination was missing among the various Protestant denominations, which basically came to convert the Jews to Christianity.
Perhaps the failure of Protestantism to prosper in the East was due to the official policy of the Ottomans, which placed obstacles in the way of Protestant missionary activity. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Protestant missionary societies began to settle in the East, particularly in Palestine. However, the occupation of Palestine and the rest of Greater Syria -Bilad al-Sham- by Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1831 created the proper climate for the growth of the Christian missions. On the Protestant level, this appropriate climate led to the convergence of the various Protestant societies and the unification of the efforts of the British and Prussian governments, which were two major Protestant countries, to form an Anglican Bishopric in Jerusalem in which the British and the Prussians would participate.
The foundation of the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem and the appointment of its first Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander, are discussed in the first and second chapters. The third chapter discusses the bishopric in the era of Bishop Samuel Gobat, while the fourth chapter deals with the history of the bishopric after its division and the abrogation of the English-Prussian agreement.
The importance of the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem in Palestinian ecclesiastical history is due to the fact that it constituted a major and essential phase of the development and growth of the Churches and Christian institutions in the Holy Land. Thus the Anglican Bishopric became a new ecclesiastical entity in Palestine and participated in the development of the local community through its societies, schools, clinics and parishes.