His Majesty King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has given 5 dunums of land on the Jordan River where John the Baptist is thought to have baptized Jesus. Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, the king’s adviser on churches in Jordan, officially gave the land to ELCJHL Bishop Munib Younan during a visit by Archbishop Jukka Paarma of the Lutheran Church in Finland and his delegation, where the group and members from the ELCJHL’s Amman Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd participated.
Prince Ghazi, a Muslim scholar, has been trying to reawaken awareness of the holy sites in Jordan, particularly the Baptismal site. Land is being given to individual local churches to create a church home and center of their own at the site so that they can invite their churches worldwide to use the site for pilgrimage and baptism.
For a photo slideshow, click here.
For more information on the Baptism Site, click here.