Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
Logo of the ELCJH
Orientation	Lutheran
Polity	Interdependent local, and national expressions with modified episcopal polity
Leader	Munib Younan
Associations	LWF, Middle East Council of Churches, WCC
Region	Jordan, Israel, Palestine
Origin	2005
Congregations	6
Members	3000
Primary schools	4
Official website	http://www.elcjhl.org/

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJH) is a Lutheran denomination that has congregations in Israel, Jordan and State of Palestine. First recognized as an autonomous religious community by King Hussein in 1959, the church currently has 3,000 members in six congregations.

The current bishop is Munib Younan. Younan is the former President of Lutheran World Federation (2010-2017).

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has its origins in the arrival of German and English Protestant missionaries to Jerusalem in the mid 19th century. Protestant missions had begun in the early 19th century but Protestant Christians had no legal protection in the Ottoman Empire unlike the Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox who were legally protected by treaty. In 1840, the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV sent his diplomat, Christian von Bunsen to present a proposal to Queen Victoria of Great Britain for the establishment of a joint Protestant bishopric under the protection of both Prussia and Great Britain.