Christians unite in Israel for mass baptism
Over a thousand pilgrims from dozens of countries journey to Jordan River for the religious ceremony.
By DPA and Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news1500 Christian pilgrims from 35 different countries participated in a mass baptism on Monday in the Jordan River. The religious ceremony was conducted at Yardenit, one of the sites along the Jordan where the Christian messiah Jesus is supposed to have been baptized. Christians from India to the Ukraine were immersed in the waters of the Jordan River
The environmental group Friends of the Earth – Middle East has urged the Israeli government to close down part of the Jordan River until water quality standards for tourists and pilgrims bathing at the holy site were met. Gidon Bromberg, FoEME's Israel Director has accuses the Tourism Ministry and Nature and Parks Authority of attempting to lower health standards in order to keep the baptism site open.
"Sadly, the lower Jordan River has long suffered from severe mismanagement," Friends of the Earth Middle East said in a statement from Tel Aviv. FoEME said that Israel, Syria and Jordan are diverting 98 per cent of the Jordan's water and are discharging untreated sewage, agricultural run-off, saline water and fish pond effluent into it.
According to a recent FoEME study, of the original 1.3 billion cubic meters of clean water that used to flow down the Jordan River annually, only 30 million cubic meters currently flow and much of this water is polluted.
 |
1500 Christian pilgrims from 35 different countries participated in a mass baptism ceremony on the Jordan River. |
| Photo by: AP |
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
i wonder if any of these so called christians came to the west bank or to gaza or to the christians in jerusalem, i wonder if they cared about the suffering of palestinian christians
And if parts of Israel and Jlem become Arab/Muslim these traditions will not happen... they would never be allowed. EJlem should be kept by Israel and be open to all religions as it is now.
To be born of water and the spirit - "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God!" (Jesus) Could be he was speaking of the amniotic fluid/liquor of the newborn human form, and the birth of the spirit after death of the flesh/human?
The massive amounts of sewage that flow into the Jordan start hundreds of meters downstream by Kvutzat Kinneret. Since there's no way for the water to flow upstream, where they go is unpolluted water (no more than in the lake itself) directly from the Kinneret.
Most people think that baptism is a unique Christian affair. It is not. The ceremony is one that preceeds Christ. It represents a cleansing from sin and the rising from submersion in the water represents a ressurection from death to a new life without sin.
It's a pagan tradition?