DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE

Two weekends ago now (Friday, Feb. 19), his holiness the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Willians breezed through town here in Amman on his way to the Holy Land (acress the river). He was the guest of honor (or should we say 'honour') at the laying of the cornerstone of a new Anglican chapel at the site of Jesus's baptism by John the Baptist at the Jordan River (Bethany-across-the-Jordan) - OUR side of the muddy little rivulet. Offering a living example of Christ's "one holy, catholic and apostolic church", each major denomination is building their own chapel: the Roman Catholics, the Coptic Orthodix, the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox ...

My Associated Press free-lance friend Dale, also Anglican, drove us down from the heights of Amman down into the Jordan Valley (below sea level and part of the "lowest place on earth" honors given to the Dead Sea). It was refreshing and cool at the top of the escarpment but blazing warm down at river level.

The foundation stone was laid - almost inaudibly and invisibly given the crush of the crowd of Arab Anglicans from Jordan and the West Bank, then we proceeded to the River (a first for me), where communion was celebrated in Arabic and English, and the Archbishop spoke on how being a Christian in hard times and political instability hadn't changed all that much in 2000 years!

The pre-eucharistic blessing included "asperges" (sprinkling the congregation with water). We got the asperges to end all asperges: holy water from the Jordan River sprinkled with real hyssop branches. And it felt blessedly cool on a warm day ...