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| US Delegation with church representatives of Jordan |
A recent U.S. State Department delegation visit to Jordan and Jerusalem underscored the complex realities facing evangelical Christians and the broader Christian communities in the region, blending appreciation for Jordan’s relative religious openness with pointed discussions of legal recognition, personal status rights, inter-church tensions, and the pressures on Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land.
Led by Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the meetings in mid-October highlighted both Jordan’s model of coexistence under King Abdullah II and unresolved structural issues that affect a small but active Protestant community of roughly 10,000 people.
Barnes, a Texas native and career official with prior roles focused on international religious freedom and political affairs, assumed the DRL post after Senate confirmation in 2025. His bureau oversees annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and contributes to International Religious Freedom reporting—documents with statutory deadlines that often shape U.S. diplomacy and congressional oversight. The October itinerary, which included stops at significant Christian heritage sites, fits into ongoing U.S. engagement on these issues in a region where Christian populations have declined sharply amid conflict, emigration, and demographic shifts.
Jordan Leg: Heritage Sites, Praise for Coexistence, and a Persistent Legal Ask
On Saturday, October 17, the delegation stopped in Madaba, known as the “City of Mosaics,” visiting St. George’s Church—home to the renowned sixth-century mosaic map of the Holy Land—and the Latin Church. Barnes also toured other sites of deep Christian significance, including Makawir (associated with John the Baptist’s imprisonment and beheading) and Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the traditional site of Jesus’ baptism.
Jordan is preparing to mark 2,000 years since that event around 2030, and officials have emphasized preservation of this shared heritage. In posts from the visit, Barnes described the sites as “powerful reminders of the importance of preserving religious history,” thanking Jordanian tourism officials and church leaders across denominations for their hospitality.
At a luncheon, Emad (Imad) Ma’ayeh—retired major general, former member of parliament, and president of the Jordan Evangelical Council—praised King Abdullah II and the government for the freedoms Jordanian Christians enjoy and what he described as the “absolute absence of discrimination.”
He noted that evangelicals number about 10,000 and gather in 57 locations nationwide. Para-church organizations run by the community contribute to education, elderly care, refugee support, and prison ministries—work that leaders present as integral to national life rather than isolated minority activity.
Ma’ayeh raised a long-standing request: recognition of an independent evangelical ecclesiastical court to handle personal status matters such as divorce, inheritance, and adoption. Jordan recognizes 11 Christian denominations that may operate such courts (including Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and others listed in an annex to the 2014 Law on Councils of Christian Denominations).
Many evangelical groups—Baptists, Free Evangelicals, Nazarenes, Assemblies of God, and others organized under the Jordan Evangelical Council since around 2006–2007—have partial registration but lack full denominational status for their own tribunals.
Members often rely on civil courts (which are directed to rule according to the parties’ beliefs) or arrangements with recognized churches such as the Anglicans, arrangements that community leaders say have proven incomplete or irregular in practice.
This legal gap is not new. Historical tensions have included public opposition from some traditional church leaders who have viewed evangelical activity as a threat to social cohesion or as “sheep stealing” from historic churches, sometimes linking it to Western influence or proselytism.
A 2021 episode involving a Greek Orthodox archbishop’s letter describing certain groups as a “danger” illustrated the friction; more recent outreach, including meetings with Jordanian senators, shows intermittent efforts at inclusion. In June 2026, the government advanced cabinet-level changes that would allow Christians greater flexibility on inheritance through ecclesiastical courts and verified wills, moving away from strict application of Sharia rules that disadvantage female heirs—a step evangelical leaders welcomed as progress even while seeking fuller equality and court recognition.
Baptist leaders reinforced the positive framing. Rev. Nabih Abbassi, head of the Jordanian Baptist Convention, and council representatives met the delegation and highlighted King Abdullah’s role in safeguarding religious freedoms and the Christian presence regionally.
They described Jordan as a model of pluralism, citizenship, and rule of law. Rev. Rami Hussein Halseh, secretary of the Baptist Council, emphasized that Jordanian Christians contribute as full partners in national development, not as an isolated minority, and that churches promote peace, counter extremism, and foster moderation. Barnes, for his part, expressed appreciation for Jordan’s steps on human rights and religious freedom and commended religious institutions for fostering stability.
An interfaith meeting with clergy from Roman Orthodox, Latin, Greek Catholic, and Episcopal Arab churches allowed transparent discussion of Christian life in Jordan and inter-church relations.
Orthodox priest Rev. Romanos Samawi later noted concerns about some missionary groups operating under a church guise whose proselytizing, in his view, reflects poorly on the established Christian community, which maintains strong relations with Muslim neighbors and forms part of the social fabric.
He also raised worries about potential links between certain groups and global pro-Israel activism. Samawi stressed the ancient roots of the Orthodox presence and King Abdullah’s role as a defender of Christians and custodian of holy sites for both faiths.
At St. George’s, Archimandrite Andraos Shamieh and others welcomed the group; Ma’ayeh and other local figures were present. The visit closed with a commemorative mosaic and book about the map presented to Barnes.
Jerusalem Meetings: Palestinian Christian Voices
The same day, Barnes met in Jerusalem with a group that included Brian Burch (U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See), embassy officials, and Palestinian Christians. Among them was Rev. Jack Sara, president of Bethlehem Bible College and secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance’s MENA branch.
Sara briefed the visitors on the realities, challenges, and concerns facing Palestinian Christians, the college’s ministry, and wider community struggles. He stressed the importance of protecting the Christian presence in the land of Christ’s birth, human dignity, and ensuring local voices are heard in decisions shaping the region’s future.
Sara later described the meeting as positive, noting interest in adjusting U.S. engagement with the Palestinian Authority, assistance related to settler violence, and reports of insults, mistreatment of Christians in Jerusalem, and attempts to attack churches. These conversations occur against a backdrop of demographic decline among Christians in the West Bank and broader Holy Land pressures—economic hardship, political uncertainty, and occasional targeting of religious sites and individuals—that local leaders repeatedly flag as existential threats to an indigenous presence dating to the earliest centuries of the faith.
Burch’s parallel meetings with Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, and Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Nourhan Manougian focused on issues affecting historic Christian communities, underscoring the multi-denominational nature of U.S. outreach.
Broader Context and Analytical Angles
Jordan’s Christian community, roughly 2 percent of the population and predominantly Orthodox and Catholic, enjoys comparatively strong legal protections and social integration relative to many regional peers. The Hashemite monarchy has cultivated a reputation as a guardian of holy sites and a promoter of interfaith dialogue, a stance that has earned international recognition and aligns with U.S. interests in regional stability.
Evangelicals, though smaller and of more recent organized presence (with roots tracing to late-19th/early-20th-century missions), punch above their weight in social services and maintain that full ecclesiastical recognition would strengthen, not fragment, the Christian witness.
The visit’s dual focus—celebrating Jordanian openness while surfacing evangelical institutional requests and Palestinian Christian vulnerabilities—illustrates the layered nature of religious freedom diplomacy. Traditional churches sometimes view evangelical growth warily; evangelicals seek parity in personal status jurisdiction that other recognized groups already possess. Meanwhile, in the Holy Land proper, the conversation shifts toward physical security, demographic survival, and the practical effects of conflict and settlement activity on daily life and sacred spaces.
U.S. reporting cycles provide a formal channel for these issues. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are due to Congress by late February (though often published later); International Religious Freedom Reports typically follow later in the year. An independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issues its own spring assessments. Visits like Barnes’ help inform those products and signal priorities.
No official comment was immediately available from the U.S. Embassy in Amman at the time of initial reporting. The meetings themselves, however, demonstrate sustained high-level attention to the status of religious minorities and the health of Christian communities in a strategically important and historically sacred landscape.
For Jordanian evangelicals seeking institutional parity, Palestinian Christians navigating daily pressures, and policymakers tracking both coexistence successes and remaining gaps, the October itinerary offered a public airing of issues that rarely dominate headlines yet shape the long-term viability of diverse religious life in the region.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
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