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The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
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| 05.04.2007 |
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| Palestinian Lutheran Church Mourns Its First Bishop |
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Bishop emeritus Daoud Haddad, the first bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ) died on 19 March. According to a statement from the church, now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), Haddad died after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
Born in Lebanon in 1914, Haddad studied theology in Switzerland and Germany, and was ordained as a pastor in Jerusalem in 1940. He was consecrated as the first bishop of the then ELCJ in 1979, and served until 1986, when the late Bishop Naim Nasser succeeded him.
According to the ELCJHL statement, Haddad’s life was marked by trying and tumultuous moments. Two days after Propst Johannes Doering and Director Hermann Schneller ordained him at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, the two Germans were deported, as the war in Europe had begun. When the 1948 Palestinian/Israeli conflict broke out, he was in Nazareth, and had to escort 15 boys from the Schneller School to Lebanon, because they feared the school would be dangerous for them. Upon his return to Jerusalem, he focused on the overwhelming needs of Palestinian refugees.
Gradually the ELCJHL grew in the West Bank of Jordan, in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, and a congregation was started in Ramallah in 1954 to serve the many refugees who had fled from Jaffa, Ramleh and Lod. In 1959, King Abdullah of Jordan officially recognized the ELCJ, following which, a sixth congregation was initiated in Amman, in 1977. Upon his election and subsequent consecration as bishop, Haddad focused on the growing spirituality and development of the church as well as ecumenical and interfaith relations.
Delivering the sermon at Haddad’s funeral on 25 March, ELCJHL Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan said, “God did not create people just to live and die, but to carry a message of love and hope. Bishop Haddad was a living witness of that.”
Bishop emeritus Daoud Haddad is survived by his wife, Aida, five children and grandchildren.
The 3,000-member ELCHL joined the LWF in 1974.
(ELCJHL News)
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