Jerusalem Roundup

Diocesan Press Service. February 8, 1963 [VII-9]

The annual Good Friday Offering of the Episcopal Church is part of a worldwide offering designated for Jerusalem and the East. It supports the work of the Anglican archbishopric centered at the Collegiate Church of St. George the Martyr in Jerusalem; and also the work in Iraq, Iran, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Israel and Cyprus. Grants are also made for the work of the Rt. Rev. Najib A. Cuba'in, Bishop of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, the work of the World Council of Churches in the Near East, and Church World Service for assistance to refugees.

The Anglican Church has been active in Palestine since 1841, always cooperating with the Orthodox Churches there. The Anglican metropolitan, the Most Rev. A. C. MacInnes, is known as the Archbishop in Jerusalem, for the Orthodox Patriarch is Archbishop of Jerusalem, with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as his cathedral. Seat of the Anglican Archbishop is the Collegiate Church of St. George the Martyr.

Anglican and American Episcopal clergy in Jerusalem participate in three Christmases; the traditional Western celebration on December 25, the Orthodox Christmas on January 6, and the Armenian observance on January 19; but in only two Easters, Eastern and Western, depending on the calendar observed.

Seats or stalls for honorary canons of the Collegiate Church of St. George the Martyr, cathedral of the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, are assigned to metropolitans or presiding bishops of churches within the Anglican Communion. Each stall is named for a mountain mentioned in the Bible. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., the Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger, is honorary canon in the stall of Mount Hermon and as such towers above his episcopal brothers. Mount Hermon reaches up to 9,232 feet above sea level, whereas the next highest Biblical mountain measures only 2,800 feet.

Since 1924, the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. has been represented in Jerusalem. The present resident is the Rev. John D. Zimmerman, appointed by the Overseas Department of the National Council. As American chaplain on the staff of the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr. Zimmerman is responsible for the American community there. He also is on call to serve the many Americans who arrive in Jerusalem as tourists and pilgrims. He is called upon by individuals and groups wanting to discuss Jerusalem with a resident, about anything from the verification of an ancient site to solution of the tension between Israel and the Arab states, and he often meets with people who are just glad to hear an American voice. His salary is paid out of the annual Good Friday Offering for the work of the Church in the Holy Land.

The cornerstone of St. George's Theological College in Jerusalem, Jordan, was laid on April 18, 1962, by the Rt. Rev. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr., Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion.

The College's first students were two ordinands of the Episcopal Church in Egypt, who completed a year of study and were ordained deacons in All Saints Church, Cairo, Egypt, in December, 1962. They were the first men to be ordained in the Egyptian Church in ten years.