Happy birthday in a blessed year

In the year 2000, I recall writing an article titled, “A Blessed Feast in a Blessed Year,” marking the birthday anniversary of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein, may God protect him. It was the year of the Great Jubilee, at a time when we used to annually get ready for in the land of holiness, especially in Palestine and Jordan, and while we were preparing for the visit of Pope John Paul II.

Twenty-five years later, we mark the happy feast coinciding with the new Jubilee Year 2025, which follows the silver jubilee that we marked last year, namely in 2024, for the ascension of His Majesty the King to the Throne. With the fragrance of these occasions, we ask the Almighty God to have these anniversaries return while His Majesty the King and all Jordanian society are engulfed with good health.

It is also an occasion to thank God for everything that has been accomplished in the past 25 years, especially with regards to His Majesty the King’s efforts to place Jordan on the map of global religious tourism, especially with relevance to his interest in the Baptism Site of Lord Jesus Christ, where we celebrate this year the 25th anniversary of the beginning of pilgrimage in the modern time. In  the year 2000, we started to hold a major ecclesiastical celebration in January, and in March of that year, we celebrated with Pope John Paul II the official inauguration of the Baptism Site.

These efforts were crowned in 2015 by His Majesty the King’s efforts to add the Baptism Site to the World Heritage List. Furthermore, His Majesty the King patronized in December 2022 the official dinner to which several personalities and investors from all over the world were invited to announce the start of the major project, namely “the Development of Lands Adjacent to the Baptism Site.” It is a project proposed by His Majesty the King so that visitors can enjoy the Jordanian atmosphere, climate, and nature in that unique location.

This is merely “a drop in the ocean” of the efforts conducted by His Majesty the King, whose happy birthday we celebrate today, as he travels to various countries to introduce the world to the Holy Land of Jordan and the prevailing national unity between Christians and Muslims. However, he is also the major advocate for peace in the region, and in the entire world whereby a ceasefire in Gaza as well as peace in Jerusalem and the entire Palestinian territories will be the key to peace in the world. This is what His Majesty the King reminds us of at all international forums. He is nowadays the dean of Arab leaders who calls for the cessation of the “logic of force”  and to replace it by the “power of logic” which recognizes the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and of every people who still seek justice, stability and freedom.

We convey well wishes to His Majesty the leaders on his auspicious birthday anniversary, and wish him a long life full of achievements, as well as preservation the sanctity of Jordan and the sanctity of human life, which is--as the late King Hussein used to say--"the dearest asset that we own". This is manifested by His Majesty King Abdullah II’s humanitarian and harmonious initiatives, and the repeated calls to attain peace in Palestine and the entire world.

Perhaps the greatest gift we may offer to His Majesty the King this year is the inauguration of the church named "The Baptism of Jesus Christ"  at the Baptism Site where His Majesty the King took the initiative to lay the foundation stone in 2009, with Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, in the presence of the late Pope Benedict XVI. The construction of the church has been completed to serve as one of the unique churches whose foundation stone was laid by the patron of peace, the Arab Muslim leader, and the pioneer of justice in the region and the world, namely His Majesty the King, may God protect him.