Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was in Jordan a few days ago to help lay the cornerstone of John the Baptist Church, The National reports.
“This place is set apart for prayers for honouring the name of John the Baptist, the prophet of Bethany and for the praise of the most holy name of our Lord,” he said in prayers as a congregation of around 600 Anglican worshippers in Jordan gathered around him.
Once built, John the Baptist church will be one of eight different Christian churches and monasteries under construction at the site, which was discovered in 1996. The site already boasts remnants of more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from the Byzantine period.
Jordan hopes to turn the site – at which John the Baptist baptised Jesus Christ – into a global pilgrimage destination.
Located on the east bank of the Jordan River, just north of the Dead Sea, Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan is the Wadi Kharrar of old, where John the Baptist is reputed to have worked and, by extension, Jesus would have been baptized.