The latest issue of Schneller Magazine focuses on church buildings in the Middle East and their significance for Christians.

 Some of the church ruins there are among the oldest in the world; they are, so to speak, the “cradles of Christianity.”

Professor Rainer Sörries presents some of the oldest church sites and explains why the search for the “oldest church” is not so straightforward. Even today, new churches are still being built, such as a massive Catholic church at the baptismal site of al-Maghtas in Jordan, or a smaller Anglican church in northern Israel, as described in the magazine.

Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana from Dohuk reports on the destruction and reconstruction of churches in Iraq, and Herta Däubler-Gmelin, a member of the Schneller Foundation’s board of trustees, provides a legal perspective on church construction in the Middle East. Readers can also learn what Egyptian Christians associate with churches and why, despite destruction, the message of the cross brings hope in Lebanon.

Also in this issue: insights into the work of the Schneller Schools, book reviews, and letters to the editor.

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