SAMUEL GOBAT (d 1879)
Reformer Bishop in Jerusalem
who loved the ancient churches of the East

 Do the work of an evangelist: make full proof of your ministry:
feed the flock of God. Lord, work in us the will so to do. Amen.


The Lord will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young (Isaiah 40:11).

Samuel Gobat was the longest serving Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem to date (1846 – 1879). During these years the Bishopric extended over almost the entire area of the present Province and beyond.

He was born a French-speaking Swiss Lutheran. He was the only bishop to be nominated to the see by the Prussian Crown. He was an excellent Arabic scholar. Gobat was anxious to encourage loyalty to the ancient
Churches but those who responded to his message were often pressured or deprived by their own clergy and Gobat reasoned that he could not refuse to welcome them “without rejecting the Lord Himself.” Against the grain he found himself developing Arab Anglican congregations. He was an inveterate traveler from Ethiopia to Turkey, and a great builder of schools, clinics and chapels. His last decade saw the beginning of the Anglican Church in Iran. The latter part of his time as Bishop saw a happier relation of both pastoral harmony and doctrinal community with Eastern Orthodoxy.
 
COLLECT FOR SAMUEL GOBAT

God our Father,
you called Samuel Gobat
to leave his own country and his own kindred
to serve the Christians of the Middle East.
Give us a measure of the same pastoral zeal
for the Gospel and for the unity of your Church,
that your Church may rejoice in continued growth
in faith and hope and love.
Grant this through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.