In his journal for July 3, 1896, Andrew Jenson recorded the following exchange with a Greek Orthodox priest on baptism while touring the Holy Land:
My next visit was to
the Church of Gabriel, or the Church of the Annunciation. Of the orthodox
Greek, north of the church, which spring is the supply source of Mary’s well
nearby. Greek pilgrims use the water drawn up by the priestly attendant from
under the altar for bathing their eyes and heads; but being thirsty, I drank
with great relish the cup offered me. One of the priests, after being told that
I was from America, asked me if I was a Mormon. Receiving a reply in the
affirmative, he held a consultation with several of his fellow priests, the
substance of which I never learned. But he must have met some of our Elders
before. Though he spoke Greek and I English, we managed to exchange views on
different points, among which the mode of immersion, which the Greeks have
always maintained as the proper mode. He seemed pleased when I made him
understand that I also believed in that form and condemned sprinkling as being
no baptism at all. A large and rather richly embellished baptismal font, which
I examined with considerable interest, gave occasion for their remarks. (Reid
L. Neilson and R. Mark Melville eds., A Historian in Zion: The Autobiography of
Andrew Jenson, Assistant Church Historian [rev ed.; Provo, Utah: Religious
Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016],
333)
