- Title: WEST BANK: HUNDREDS OF PILGRIMS ATTEND MASS BAPTISM.
- Date: 18th January 2000
- Summary: JERICHO, WEST BANK (JANUARY 18, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. GV: GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH DIODOROS ON THE ROAD TO BAPTISM SITE 0.08 2. MV: DIODOROS ON WHEELCHAIR BEING LED TO BAPTISM 0.15 3. GV: PILGRIMS FOLLOWING THE PATRIARCH'S CONVOY 0.20 4. LV: PILGRIMS PRAYING NEAR JORDAN RIVER 0.24 5. GV/MV/PAN: PILGRIMS BEING BAPTISED (5 SHOTS) 1.14 6. GV/ZOOM OUT/LV: JORDANIAN SOLDIERS WATCHING FROM ACROSS THE RIVER 1.24 7. CU/SV: PILGRIMS BEING BAPTISED (3 SHOTS) 1.43 BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (JANUARY 18, 2000) (REUTERS) 8. GV: SCOUTS MARCHING IN MANGER SQUARE 1.51 9. SCU: TRUMPET PLAYER 1.56 10. GV: SCOUT GIRLS HOLDING FLAGS 2.01 11. GV: SCOUTS MARCHING 2.07 12. SCU: ARMENIAN PATRIARCH TORKOM MANOOGIAN GREETING CHURCH LEADERS 2.19 13. GV/ZOOM OUT: BELLS RINGING ABOVE THE NATIVITY CHURCH 2.28 14. GV: ARMENIAN PATRIARCH WALKING TOWARDS THE CHURCH 2.36 15. MCU: BOY WATCHING PROCESSION 2.41 16. MV: ARMENIAN PATRIARCH ENTERING CHURCH 2.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: QASR AL-YAHUD, JORDAN RIVER, JERICHO AND BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA2EE9VUGC08HKE9DQP8KW9A05T
- Story Text: Hundreds of pilgrims have attended a baptism
procession in the Jordan River at the spot where Jesus is
believed to have been baptised by John the Baptist.In
Bethlehem, Armenians have marked Christmas eve at the place
revered as Jesus's birthplace.
The service on Tuesday (January 18) was led by the
frail Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Diodorus I, who
had to be pushed in a wheelchair from St John's monastery down
a bumpy asphalt road and then carried down the steep steps to
the river bank.
Watched by Israeli soldiers and police and a few Jordanian
troops metres (yards) away on the opposite bank, he threw a
cross decorated with a garland of flowers into the River
Jordan - a signal for the bravehearted to wade into the
blessed waters.
Scores of Orthodox Christian pilgrims plunged into the
wintry waters of the river at the spot where tradition has
long held Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.
Nuns in black habits, two Russian Orthodox priests
carrying wooden crosses, people in just their underwear and a
flock of faithful in flowing white robes immersed themselves
in the reed-clogged stream on the Orthodox feast of the
Epiphany.
The Israeli army, which controls the site on the west bank
of the river, estimated that 4,000 Russian and Greek Orthodox
pilgrims attended the ceremony.The vast majority stayed dry.
Whether Jesus indeed was baptised at the spot where Maniuk
took the plunge has suddenly become moot as Jordan and Israel
Moslem and Jew, make competing claims to the authentic
place, each with an eye on money from millennium year tourism.
Tuesday also marked the date on which Armenians celebrate
Christmas eve.
The feast was celebrated in Bethlehem.It was the third
celebration of Christmas in the new millennium marked in the
city.
The Armenian Patriarch Torkom Manoogian arrived at Manger
Square from where he lead a musical procession to the church
of the Nativity.
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