Patriarch Daniel hopes tourists to have access to Jordan Valley
The Jordan Valley and the southern part of the Sea of Galilee
22/6/2010
The Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) Patriarch Daniel, on Tuesday June 22, voiced hope that the Israeli authorities will make every effort to allow tourists’ access to the Jordan Valley, so that the Romanian pilgrims may be given the opportunity to visit the Romanian Convent of St. John the Baptist, located along the Jordan River, nearby the place where Jesus Christ Our Redeemer was baptized, reads the Romanian Patriarchy’s release.
Patriarch Daniel expressed his wish when he welcomed Israeli Ambassador in Bucharest David Oren, at the Patriarchy’s hqrs., on the special occasion of the end of the latter’s diplomatic mission to Romania.
According to the above said source, Romania’s Patriarch underscored that, the pilgrimages the Romanian Patriarchy organizes to Israel and other Middle East countries, are ever more, over the latest years, and more and more Romanian Orthodox pilgrims have been given the opportunity to see the Holy Land and worship at the Holy Places and know better the Biblical tradition and the common spiritual values.
BOR Patriarch also praised the good relations the Romanian Patriarchy and the incumbent leaders of the Mosaic Community living in Romania do have. The Israeli diplomat, in his turn, thanked for the warm welcome he was given and emphasized that his three-year diplomatic activity in Romania meant a time of many, both professional and personal, achievements.
In the context, Ambassador Oren pointed out he had visited many Orthodox cathedrals, churches and monasteries allover Romania and met many Romanian hierarchs, priests and monks, who were very welcoming and hospitable, particularly those who had been visiting the Holy Land.
During the appointment, it was also emphasized the necessity of promoting the values of the Judeo-Christian tradition, as a spiritual basis of the European culture and civilization, through religious education in public schools, through pilgrimages and periodically organizing symposiums on the topic, with a view to promoting more intensely the joint religious tenets in the nowadays society facing secularization.
