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A pastor in Tanzania has been detained by the police after two worshipers drowned during baptism in a river near Rombo, north of the country, the BBC reports.
According to the country’s police spokesman, the two were overwhelmed by the current of the River Ungwasi.
It is still not clear how the pastor and the other worshippers involved managed to survive.
They are members of a local church called Shalom, which is part of the charismatic Christian movement.
Baptism ceremony is a symbol of washing away of sin and the beginning of a new life and by being baptized in a river rather than in church is seen as a way of re-enacting the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.
