Christ Church, near Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate, was the first Protestant church in the Middle East, established in the nineteenth century, when the winds of modernity first began to blow in this ancient land.
Christ Church was built by the Church of England following the purchase of the land in 1833, in what was and still is an excellent location. It holds regular services in several languages and runs a charming guesthouse.
From an architectural point of view, it is a very unusual house of prayer. Neo-Gothic in style, it contains no overt Christian symbols, but rather is replete with Old Testament ones. The intricate stained glass windows, for example, depict some of the Seven Species of Deuteronomy 8:8 and other Old Testament themes; the Ten Commandments are inscribed in Hebrew behind the wooden altar and paneling behind the altar is reminiscent of the Torah ark in a synagogue.