ITEMS OF INTEREST July 7, 2008 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

with contributions from Tim Butcher, Carla Hinton, Sakiasi Nawaikama

ARCHAEOLOGISTS claim to have found the world's oldest [Christian] church.... If tests confirm that it dates back to between 33 AD to 70 AD, as the archaeologists claim, it would make it the earliest known place of Christian worship by around two hundred years.

According to a report in the Jordan Times newspaper, a very early underground church was found beneath the ancient Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab, northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," Abdel Qader al-Housan, head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, said.

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