The campus of the Tantur Institute is situated on the main road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Tantur welcomes scholars and students to pursue their research and writing for longer or shorter periods, and offers programs of continuing education and spiritual renewal for parish clergy, teachers and other church workers. Tantur also offers a Laity Enrichment Program.

In October 1963 Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant observers at the Second Vatican Council shared with Pope Paul VI the dream of an international ecumenical institute for theological research and pastoral studies. After his 1964 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Vatican purchased Tantur (Arabic for "hilltop"), then leased it to the University of Notre Dame (USA) for fifty years. With the guidance of an International Ecumenical Advisory Board, the University built the beautiful and spacious Institute that opened in 1971. The Board has continued to set up the programs, seek out faculty and staff, and administer the property. Under the guidance of both Protestant and Roman Catholic rectors, the Institute has welcomed over 3,500 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Roman Catholic participants to its programs. They have come from dozens of countries and all but one of the continents.