Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land - Palestine
The Right Reverend Bishop Munib Younan
The Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is the Rt. Rev. Dr. Munib A. Younan. He was consecrated as bishop – the third Palestinian to hold the office – on 5 January 1998 at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem in the presence of religious and political leaders from many nations.
Younan was educated in Palestine and Finland and has been active in numerous faith organizations since his ordination in 1976, such as the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Fellowship of the Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC). The bishop was the first to translate the Augsburg Confession, a key document of the Lutheran Church, into Arabic. He is an active member of various ecumenical and interfaith dialogue initiatives in Jerusalem that he helped found. He serves on the Royal Committee for the Prizes of Interfaith Harmony Week in Jordan.
In July 2010, he was elected as the first Arab Christian to be president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a global communion of 145 member churches in 79 countries representing more than 72.5 million Christians. He is one of the honorary presidents of MECC and provides leadership for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue as well as for the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land (CRIHL). He is an authority on Christian-Muslim relations.
