The King of Jordan Plans to Improve Christianity's Third Most Holy Site

King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has recently made plans public to upgrade Christianity's third most holiest site: the Al-Maghtas or Baptism Site "Bethany Beyond the Jordan". 

This site is believed to be the location where Saint John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.

Over 81,000 pilgrims visit annually, especially on the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.

It is on this date that Eastern Christians celebrate Jesus's Baptism, while Western Christians celebrate this day as the day the Three Wise Men gave Jesus Christ the Three Gifts.

Many other pilgrims visit throughout the rest of the year.

However, King Abdullah II has released plans to make this 81,000 number look meager. A new 300 million (US) Dollar development plan has been released that will go into effect this year (2023) and hopes to create an area that can accomade one million people for the up-coming celebration of the second millennium anniversary of the Baptism of Jesus! This site will include a re-created village to display life around Bethany Beyond the Jordan 2,000 years ago, a botanical gardens, a bird sanctuary, an amphitheatre, hotels, spas, restarunts, lots of farm land to provide for food, and plenty of other new developments such as lots of infastructure improvements. This new devolpment area has a really cool name too: Baptism Site Development Zone or the BDZ for short! 

King Abdullah II and the Jordanian Government hopes to make Al-Mahgtas a home to Christian pilgirmage because they want to preserve their Christian roots and to remind others that the first Christians lived in Jordan too. 

The holy King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is regarded as the 41st-generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammed and as such, his kingdom is very holy for Muslims and commands great respect from the whole Islamic world, and are therefore Custodians for Islamic Holy Sites in Jerusalem.

However, King Abdullah II is also the Custodian for Christian Holy Sites in Jerusalem, and sees a special place for Christians in the Middle East.

Arab Christians as many may know are becoming a lost ethnic group through emigration, discrimination, and in some parts, even genocide.

Jordan and other nations have done a good job recently in fighting discrimination and creating better economic opportunities for Arab Christians to decrease their need for emigration.

While Christians in Jordan make up anywhere from 1% to 9% of Jordanians, they are guaranteed at-least 7% (9 seats) of the representatives in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Jordan's Parliament. This healthy proportion has also been mixed in with widespread access to elite circles for the Christian community in Jordan.

King Abdullah II has led this reform, especially after the Arab Spring, where he has transformed Jordan into a more proper constitutional monarchy in 2016 with a proportional democracy, while his predecessors have also legislated many liberties for his people such as the freedom of religion. In doing so, he and his family have also guaranteed a thriving Christian culture in the Hashemite Kingdom.

Many Christians are among the most trusted allies of the House of Hashim and they enjoy public displays of Christmas celebrations and other festivities as well as their own ecclesiastical courts to deal with matters more pertinent to religious morality. In fact, both Christmas and Easter are public holidays and Christians are usually allowed Sundays off of work for mass.

While Christians use to have an amount closer to 20% of Jordan's population last century, this percentage has mainly dipped due to the high birth rate of Muslims in proportion to the low birth rate of Christians, and the number of refugees taken in by Jordan, most of whom have been Muslim, but a minority which have been Christian. Mixed in with higher Christian emigration than Muslim emigration, one can see how this proportion is now so uneven.

Despite this, in actuality, there are more total Christians than ever in Jordan. And, the highest ranking Christian Jordanian government official ever is currently in power, Deputy Prime Minister Rajai Muasher. 

Thus, Christians enjoy high ministerial and military roles like Muslims in Jordan, making King Abdullah II's plans all the more likely to be achieved because he has really shown the value he places in Arab Christians.

In fact, King Abdullah II himself and others in the Royal Family were key in leading the efforts to make Al-Maghtas a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. 

And it was the efforts of the archeologist and priest, Father Michele Piccirillo, OFM, who led Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, first cousin of King Abdullah II, to Al-Maghtas in 1994. Prior to this, the location and significance of Al-Maghtas had long been forgotten after the Crusading States were forced out of the area. This area would become a no man's land over the years as tribes would battle, and then most recently, in the early second-half of last century, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to this area being heavily mined (land-mines). Thus, the Royal Family led efforts to de-mine the area. As such, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad chairs the commission of the independent board of trustees for the Baptism Site Commission.

King Abdullah II recently gave a very riveting 11 minute interview on CNN you can watch here, where he explained how important it is to preserve both Christian sites in the Holy Land and Arab Christians as a people, both in Palestine and in Jordan.

As he stated in the interview, the Al-Maghtas can really serve as a great symbol of integration between both the Muslim and Christian communities because it is a holy site for Muslims too, as Muslims honor Mary as one of the holiest women, and Jesus as one of the holiest men. They may not regard Jesus as God, but they do honor him and as such, the Al-Maghtas can be a place both Muslims and Christians learn their common struggle for a more just world.

King Abdullah II mentioned how the integration of Israel into the region is crucial, but so too is the integration of Palestine. He stated how the two must both be integrated, and how Jerusalem must be taken out of the politics of the region. It must be beyond politics.

In a recent speech to the UN, King Abdullah II mentioned how Christians are suffering in Jerusalem, and how the international community must work together to preserve the peace and status quo in Jerusalem for billions of followers of the Abrahamic Religions. This is a view shared by the Holy See as well. Pope Francis and many subsequent Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem have been adamant about the preservation of Jerusalem as a proto-international city which is what the status quo essentially provides now if followed. The Holy See officially wants Jerusalem to be a corpus separatum, a plan originally approved by the UN that would see Jerusalem under an international body undivided, but shared between various Faith Leaders. As things currently stand, Jordan and Israel both control various parts while the capital is legally split between Palestine and Israel, despite the UN's wishes.

Nonetheless, one can see the great importance Jordan has played in protecting Christians and their Holy Sites whether they be in Jordan itself, or in other nearby lands.

Perhaps, King Abdullah II is most enthralled into helping out the plight of Arab Christians because his mother, Princess Muna Al-Hussein, was a British Christian who converted to Islam after marrying his father, the late King Hussein bin Talal. King Hussein was also married and divorced to one other woman, Dina bint Abdul-Hamid (Egyptian Muslim of the House of Hashim), as well as married to two other women, Alia Al-Hussein (Jordanian Muslim born in Egypt) and Queen Noor Al-Hussein (Syrian-Lebanese American Christian born in the USA and converted to Islam), with the Alia Al-Hussein marriage ending due to her unfortunate death, and only Queen Noor Al-Hussein and Princess Muna Al-Hussein continuing to live presently. Therefore, the Christian influence on King Abdullah II is strong.

These factors play an even greater role into how Christians are perceived in Jordan to this day.

When ISIS was conquering many parts of Iraq and Syria for example, or when Armenian Christians have been discriminated against, many of the Christians from these nations and of this ethnic group have come to Jordan to seek refuge. 

Currently, the Holy See and Jordan feature very good relations and there are an estimated 114,000 Catholics in Jordan out of an approximate 250,000-400,000 Christians in Jordan. Of the 114,000 Catholics, 80,000 are estimated to be part of the Latin Rite and under the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, while 32,000 are estimated to be Eastern Byzantine Rite Catholics of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church under the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Petra and Philadelphia in Amman. There are other types of Catholics in Jordan such as the recent Chaldean Catholics from Iraq who had come as refugees.

Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all made visits to the kingdom and have all visited the Al-Maghtas.

It was here in 2009 that Pope Benedict XVI encouraged "all Jordanians, whether Christian or Muslim to build on the firm foundations of religious tolerance that enable the members of different communities to live together in peace and mutual respect". Pope Benedict XVI was extremely grateful to the people of Jordan and its Royal Family for being so welcoming to himself, and for being so inclusive of the Christian community. 

Pope Benedict XVI was especially thankful to King Abdullah II when he "gratefully acknowledg[ed] the particular consideration that [King Abdullah II] shows towards the Christian community in Jordan. This spirit of openness not only helps the members of different ethnic communities in this country to live together in peace and concord, but it has contributed to Jordan’s far-sighted political initiatives to build peace throughout the Middle East." 

And, Pope Francis has continued this message during his time as pope as he has worked diligently to create mutual respect and religious freedom among the Christians and Muslims in the Middle East as well.

While it is true that Jordan is not the perfect place for Christians, as conversion between religions is greatly frowned upon thus almost fully eliminating evangelism, it is true that Christians continue to receive very equal treatment and in fact are often better educated and more well-off on average compared to their Muslim counterparts. In addition, Jordan provides one of the best places for ecumenism, at least among the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholics who amount to almost all Jordanian Christians. Among this community, many often go to each other's churches and the people often describe themselves as Christian first. It is important to remember that some of the Christian communities of Jordan can trace their Christian roots back to the times of Jesus Christ, some even preserving various Aramaic languages. 

It is among these Christians that you often see the greatest support for the stability, freedom, and peaceful coexistence that the Jordanian Royal Family provides. 

And with continual improvements to the Al-Maghtas and other Christian Holy sites, there is a very good chance that Jordan could soon become a destination for all Christians to come to, rivaling those of Santiago de Compostela and Rome one day.

Let us all hope and pray that this development may go smoothly.