Celebrating CMJ’s 200 years of work in Israel

CMJ officially decided to establish a base in Jerusalem in 1823- to introduce the Jewish people there to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.  They also encouraged the British government to establish a consulate there, which occurred in 1838 – with the first Consul instructed to protect the Jewish people.  Also, in 1838 CMJ purchased property on which Christ Church, the first Protestant Church in the region, would be built.  They then held daily services there in Hebrew.  When the Anglo-Prussian Protestant Bishopric was established in 1841, CMJ nominated the first Protestant Bishop – who was a former rabbi!    In time CMJ established the first modern institutions in the city and land, including hospitals, schools, and industrial schools. 

By the 1860s CMJ had purchased a property in Jaffa, and ground outside the walled city of Jerusalem where they built a new hospital, known today as the Anglican International School in Jerusalem. In the 1920s they purchased the former hotel of Baron Ustinov in Jaffa, today’s Beit Immanuel.

Today CMJ has four thriving centres in Israel, three of which have Messianic Fellowships.  Additionally, there is also outreach to the Arabic speaking peoples in Israel from these properties.  This work has been built on the vision and courage of those early founders. 

Did we go to the land of Israel to stop Jewish people being Jewish? Most certainly not!  We went there to re-introduce the Jewish Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, to the Jewish people – the very people who originally introduced Him to us Gentiles.