JORDAN RIVER, West Bank, Jan 18 (AFP-NT) - Orthodox Christians gathered here Thursday for colorful celebrations at the site where tradition says Jesus was baptised, but an historic twin ceremony on the Jordanian side of the river failed to materialize. Israeli troops opened the mine-strewn no man's land so more than 2,500 people from around the globe could cross to Israel's side of the river for ceremonies presided over by Diodoros I, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem. Bearing empty bottles, plastic jugs and even buckets to collect a sample of murkey Jordan water, black-robed orthodox clerics jostled with frail grandmothers, teenagers and children up and down a narrow concrete stairway leading to the riverbank through a break in the omnipresent razor wire. At the same time Diodoros opened the Epiphany ceremony, which for the orthodox Church commemorates the baptism of Jesus, under a nearby concrete awning, atop which Israeli snipers kept a constant watch across the 10-meter-wide river to Jordan. Accompanied by a host of bearded and bejewelled clerics and officials from the Israeli army and Palestinian self-rule government, Diodoros descended to the riverside for a reading from the Book of Matthew recounting the baptism of Christ. He then tossed a gold cross, with a string prudently attached, into the river as a symbol of Jesus' baptism and released four white doves representing the Holy Spirit. Israeli authorities had announced that, for the first time since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war, a twin Epiphany ceremony would be held Thursday on the opposite bank of the Jordan, which serves as the official border between the two nations. The Jordanian ceremony was seen as a further sign of the warming of relations between the two states since they signed a 1994 peace agreement. But the Jordanian bank remained empty. "I don't understand, I spoke with the Jordanians two days ago and they said they were coming today," said Schmuel Hamburger, an official from Israel's ministry of religious affairs. A spokesman for the Israeli army said Jordanian bulldozers had been active for days clearing away brush and reeds from the opposite river bank and piles of palm fronds lay on the ground there in apparent readiness for a ceremony. "Maybe they will come tomorrow for the Ethiopian orthodox Epiphany celebration," an Israeli border guard officer said. In Amman, religious and civil authorities said they were unaware of any planned commemoration on the heavily guarded river. Meanwhile, real and symbolic baptisms were celebrated despite the blustery cold on the Israeli side, where faithful came from as far as Russia and Romania and as near as Jericho. In one corner, Rebecca and Rajai Sayegh doused their naked children, Yasmine, 3, and Samaan, 5, in water brought up from the river in a large cookpot and slightly warmed over a camping stove in a ceremony directed by an golden-robed priest. "They may not really see now the importance of being baptised here and today, but when they look back and see the video, I'm sure they'll understand," said Rebecca, a California native, as she struggled to put a wet and whimpering Yasmine into a white baptism dress. Nearby a holey hose was strung up between two poles, connected to the river via a pump which sprayed out a shower of the holy water. "The Jordan's water can sanctify things," explained Father Mark, a young priest from the Russian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. As he spoke, one of his Russian church colleagues tried vainly to fill an empty vodka bottle from the makeshift shower. dm/ch AFP /AA1234/181540 GMT JAN 96

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