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Date Posted: 07:06:50 03/21/09 Sat
Author: pastor lewis
Subject: Tony Blairs message of desire for religious fellowship.

Dear Friend,

Today, alongside the Baptist World Alliance, HRH Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad and others, I was present at the dedication of the new Baptism Centre at the Baptism Site in Jordan. The Centre will be available particularly for use by all Christian traditions that practice the believers' baptism by immersion.

This is a deeply historic place, where it is traditionally believed Jesus Christ was baptised by John. But this site is not only momentous to the Christian world, it also symbolises hope for peaceful co-existence in the Middle East. It recognises the fact that this region has for centuries been the home to sites holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It has been a place where interfaith relations have been lived out day by day- on the ground, in the market place, on the street, in the daily interchange of neighbourly relations.

It took courage and leadership for Jordan, a predominantly Muslim country, to facilitate this site of baptism. But it took more. It took the same spirit that animated John and Jesus, and the Prophet Mohammed and all the Prophets of old. Each took the world as it was - alienated from God - and tried to make it how it should be - reconciled to God Justice, mercy, compassion, the 'us'' not the 'me', pure unselfish love. This is what they stood for.

Back then, their world was small. But their message was not. And in the larger world we inhabit today, where we travel through continents and time zones, their message is the same message today, centuries later.

Don't look inwards, but look outwards. Don't exclude, embrace.

Don't argue about differences, but understand what is shared and fulfil a common purpose blessed by God.

It is also deeply encouraging that the Baptist World Alliance's President Reverend Dr David Coffey, who is also a member of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's Global Advisory Council, has also just delivered the Alliance's response to the Common Word letter ( http://lnktrack.co.uk/t.aspx?l=1679608&i=540231255 ). HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan, a principal initiator of this letter signed by 138 Muslim scholars and leaders, has warmly received the Baptist response. The letter calls on Christian leaders to enter into dialogue with Muslims and focus on commonalities between the faiths. My Foundation is very supportive of the Common Word initiative as a whole.

So this site in Jordan is not simply a place of archaeology. It is a place that now, as in John's time, is a place for renewal.

The dedication of the centre is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the need to renew. Renew our faith in our God, in our Lord, and in his message: that true love is not measured in the receiving but the giving; and the giving, not limited by human prejudice but enlarged by the infinite possibility of the love of God.

--Tony Blair

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