In Jordan, discovering 'the other Holy Land'
Monday, October 21, 2013
*Tom Tracy
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Father Nabil Haddad, director of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center, poses with an ecumenical group of Christian writers and bloggers from the U.S. who traveled to Jordan courtesy of the Jordan Travel Board.
Having the privilege of accompanying several “Holy Land” tours in Israel with Catholic groups or churches over the years, I eventually got around to wondering two things: What is there really to see next door in Jordan – a destination usually offered as a three-day extension trip to the well-established Israel tourism experience.
And the other item of curiosity: I knew people from all over the world and especially evangelical Christians are bolstering religious tourism to Israel, so how would a tour in the Holy Land differ if my fellow travelers were mostly or completely Protestant and if I was the only Catholic on board.
After a late cancellation apparently from a Texas Christian writer who was possibly concerned about safety with a civil war underway in Jordan’s neighbor, Syria, I quickly prepared to fill the spot and join an ecumenical delegation of 12 U.S. religion writers convened last month by the Jordan Tourism Board.
The participants represented various branches of the Baptist church, evangelical churches and media outlets such as Focus on the Family and The Christian Post, along with Episcopalian and Presbyterian communications staff persons, and even a Seventh Day Adventist from Toronto, Canada.
And the other item of curiosity: I knew people from all over the world and especially evangelical Christians are bolstering religious tourism to Israel, so how would a tour in the Holy Land differ if my fellow travelers were mostly or completely Protestant and if I was the only Catholic on board.
After a late cancellation apparently from a Texas Christian writer who was possibly concerned about safety with a civil war underway in Jordan’s neighbor, Syria, I quickly prepared to fill the spot and join an ecumenical delegation of 12 U.S. religion writers convened last month by the Jordan Tourism Board.
The participants represented various branches of the Baptist church, evangelical churches and media outlets such as Focus on the Family and The Christian Post, along with Episcopalian and Presbyterian communications staff persons, and even a Seventh Day Adventist from Toronto, Canada.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Tom Tracy, a freelance correspondent for the Florida Catholic in Miami, traveled to Jordan Sept 22-29 with a 12-person ecumenical delegation of U.S. based journalists convened by courtesy of the Virginia-based Jordan Travel Board. The group toured several major Biblical and historical sites in Jordan's Holy Land. They also met with the priest-founder of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center in Amman and a head archaeologist of the Baptismal Site Commission at Bethany Beyond the Jordan on the Jordan River.
Related stories:
Tom Tracy, a freelance correspondent for the Florida Catholic in Miami, traveled to Jordan Sept 22-29 with a 12-person ecumenical delegation of U.S. based journalists convened by courtesy of the Virginia-based Jordan Travel Board. The group toured several major Biblical and historical sites in Jordan's Holy Land. They also met with the priest-founder of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center in Amman and a head archaeologist of the Baptismal Site Commission at Bethany Beyond the Jordan on the Jordan River.
Related stories:
Some of the delegation had been to Israel before, others to Jordan, while a few had never been anywhere in the Middle East. There were plenty of surprises in store for all of us, including that our guide – perhaps appropriately in this case – rounded out the religious diversity with his own Muslim roots in Jordan and as a person who spoke to us late one night on the tour bus of his own pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
In answer to my first question, the modern-day Kingdom of Jordan has some heavy-duty offerings that go quite deep into the roots of Judeo-Christian traditions, most notably its centrality in the biblical regions of historic Palestine, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and as a place where Christ almost certainly walked during his earthly ministry.
At Bethany Beyond the Jordan, only in its infancy as a modern Christian pilgrimage destination — it was re-discovered during a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in the 1990s — we saw the very roots of the Christian faith where John the Baptist likely lived and where he baptized Christ. Bethany Beyond the Jordan is also believed to be a place where early Christians lived in community before any kind of organized church could have yet taken shape. Later, it was part of the early pilgrimage route.
Unlike much of the well-trod biblical tourism in Israel, this site is really something special and new to see, as the first four of 12 planned Christian churches near the site are opening pilgrim centers and places of worship for what some are calling one of the three most important Christian sites of the Holy Land — given its ties to the Church’s very origins.
Pope Benedict XVI stopped there during his 2009 pilgrimage to the Holy Land and we saw a new mosaic commemorating that visit.
During a briefing in Amman with an energetic and candid Greek Melkite priest working in interfaith relations and peace-building in the region, we learned that bold engagement with Muslims has been happening in the years since Sept. 11, 2001.
Father Nabil Haddad, founder of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center, told an amusing story of having dressed up as Santa Claus one year and of leading a group of Christian youths right into a mosque in order to extend a little Christmas good will to his Muslim neighbors – who were at first speechless at his incursion, he reported.
Our delegation of Christian writers were extremely engaged with Father Haddad during our meeting and despite theological differences that may have existed they respectfully probed our host not only with general questions but with matters pertaining to their own congregational concerns and approach to evangelism.
Tucked away in the Jordanian town of Madaba, without any great indication of its importance and with almost no noticeable security or fanfare, the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St. George houses a remarkable discovery, in plain view for inspection: under the flooring is a Byzantine church floor segment containing a mosaic-map of the Holy Land believed to the oldest map of the Christian (and many Jewish) holy places.
Showing Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, Bethlehem, Jericho and more, that 1500-year-old mosaic map helped researchers pinpoint the revised location of Christ’s baptism at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, in Jordan.
And so there it was on a pleasant September afternoon in a quiet Jordan village — a monumentally significant artifact of Christianity. A few feet away and outside the church, a group of parish youths and their Orthodox priest (who mentioned having relatives in the American Midwest) were preparing some kind of choral or theatrical production. Just another day in the Holy Land.
When it was time to leave, I spotted at least one or two of our delegation lighting a candle there at St. George Orthodox Basilica, which for me was as good a sign as any that our uniquely ecumenical group was moving along quite peacefully in Jordan’s Holy Land, the “other Holy Land.”
In answer to my first question, the modern-day Kingdom of Jordan has some heavy-duty offerings that go quite deep into the roots of Judeo-Christian traditions, most notably its centrality in the biblical regions of historic Palestine, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and as a place where Christ almost certainly walked during his earthly ministry.
At Bethany Beyond the Jordan, only in its infancy as a modern Christian pilgrimage destination — it was re-discovered during a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in the 1990s — we saw the very roots of the Christian faith where John the Baptist likely lived and where he baptized Christ. Bethany Beyond the Jordan is also believed to be a place where early Christians lived in community before any kind of organized church could have yet taken shape. Later, it was part of the early pilgrimage route.
Unlike much of the well-trod biblical tourism in Israel, this site is really something special and new to see, as the first four of 12 planned Christian churches near the site are opening pilgrim centers and places of worship for what some are calling one of the three most important Christian sites of the Holy Land — given its ties to the Church’s very origins.
Pope Benedict XVI stopped there during his 2009 pilgrimage to the Holy Land and we saw a new mosaic commemorating that visit.
During a briefing in Amman with an energetic and candid Greek Melkite priest working in interfaith relations and peace-building in the region, we learned that bold engagement with Muslims has been happening in the years since Sept. 11, 2001.
Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC
Father Nabil Haddad, director of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center, speaks about the Syrian crisis and a wide range of regional concerns Sept. 25 to an ecumenical group of Christian writers and bloggers from the U.S. who were convened at a Marriott Hotel in Amman.
Our delegation of Christian writers were extremely engaged with Father Haddad during our meeting and despite theological differences that may have existed they respectfully probed our host not only with general questions but with matters pertaining to their own congregational concerns and approach to evangelism.
Tucked away in the Jordanian town of Madaba, without any great indication of its importance and with almost no noticeable security or fanfare, the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St. George houses a remarkable discovery, in plain view for inspection: under the flooring is a Byzantine church floor segment containing a mosaic-map of the Holy Land believed to the oldest map of the Christian (and many Jewish) holy places.
Showing Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, Bethlehem, Jericho and more, that 1500-year-old mosaic map helped researchers pinpoint the revised location of Christ’s baptism at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, in Jordan.
And so there it was on a pleasant September afternoon in a quiet Jordan village — a monumentally significant artifact of Christianity. A few feet away and outside the church, a group of parish youths and their Orthodox priest (who mentioned having relatives in the American Midwest) were preparing some kind of choral or theatrical production. Just another day in the Holy Land.
When it was time to leave, I spotted at least one or two of our delegation lighting a candle there at St. George Orthodox Basilica, which for me was as good a sign as any that our uniquely ecumenical group was moving along quite peacefully in Jordan’s Holy Land, the “other Holy Land.”
