The New Jerusalem Church () was built in 1718 by the Royal Danish missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in the coastal town of Tranquebar, India, which was at that time a Danish India colony. The church is located on King Street, and church services are conducted every Sunday. The church, along with other buildings of the Tranquebar Mission, was damaged during the tsunami of 2004, and were renovated at a cost of INR 7 million, and re-consecrated in 2006.
History
In 1620, the village of Tranquebar was acquired for the Danish Crown, by the Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde, by signing an agreement with the Raghunatha Nayak of the Tanjore Nayak Kingdom on behalf of the King of Denmark.
Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar (1707) In 1707, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg helped establish the Jerusalem Church at Tranquebar for the Lutheran congregation, as the existing Zion Church was reluctant to accept native worshippers. The Tamil converts also did not want to worship in the European Zion Church, as they had negative opinions about their lifestyle and morals. Starting from 1 October 1706, Ziegenbalg organised the Tamil congregation on Sundays at his house, which was used as a school on other days. The services were held in Tamil and Portuguese which was the lingua franca at that time. Governor Hassius donated 20000 bricks towards the cause of raising the new church at Tranquebar, and also allotted land at the Sollingar quarter of the colony. The foundation for the Jerusalem Church was laid on 14 June 1707. The church was named as Jerusalem Church, after the Francke Foundations in Halle which was considered as the New Jerusalem. The registers of the church commenced on 12 May 1707, and indicate most of the congregation were servants of Europeans, former converts from Roman Catholicism, many children and women. In general, the congregation represented the lowest of Tamil society at that time. Gradually, the congregation increased, and within a year of consecration a need for a larger church was realised. A tsunami stuck Tranquebar on 27 November 1715, destroying the city walls and many buildings. Even though the Jerusalem Church was undamaged, that it was close to the sea made it vulnerable. Hence, there was an urgent need to raise another church in Tranquebar.
New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar (1718)
Within a year, the 1707 Jerusalem Church was filled to capacity, with many people being forced to stand near the windows and doors of the church, for the lack of space. Appeals for funds were made to Johann Georg von Holstein the privy counsellor to King Frederick IV in October 1713, and to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) London. The widow of Commissioner Heinrich Bonsack (died 1711) sold her house and garden, which was on the right side of the missionaries garden, to the Tranquebar Mission. Further after the return of Ziegenbalg from Europe, Governor C B Lundegaard sold the empty land between the houses of the missionaries for 100 royal dollars. Then, the mission had a large land for building the church.
On 9 February 1717, Governor Christian Brun laid the foundations of the New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar. A copper plate Danish inscription to this effect was placed. Further, the governor also gave duty-free status for the materials used for building the church and also appointed to two master artisans to oversee the work. The New Jerusalem Church was consecrated on 11 October 1718, the birthday of King Frederick IV. Danish pastors Jonas Smit and Jacob Clementin took part in the consecration services. The sermons during the consecration were preached in Tamil and Portuguese.
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was the first Protestant missionary to land in India, sent as a royal missionary by King Frederick IV, from the Kingdom of Denmark. Ziegenbalg landed at Tranquebar, then part of Danish India colony of the Danish East India Company, on 9 July 1707. Ziegenbalg attended the local school, sat amongst the village children, and learnt Tamil. He set up a Tamil seminary in 1707, and preached Christianity to the villagers. In 1711, he convinced the Martin Luther University at Halle to start scholarly study into the Tamil language.