Tag Archives: St Peter's Church

Christmas Appeal 2024

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Al Shurooq School for Blind children in Bethlehem

This year, the PCC were approached by Canon Philip Norwood on behalf of the McCabe Educational Trust which supports the Al Shurooq School for Blind Children in Bethlehem. Canon Philip is a longstanding friend of the chuches in the Langtons and many parishioners have enjoyed trips to the Holy Land with Philip, including several members of the PCC. It seemed a natural choice for the team to support a cause so close to Philip’s heart.

He sent the following report which explains the needs of the school for the future and which we hope our Christmas Appeal can support. You can donate online via the button link and also in person at St Peter’s in our services over the Christmas period, starting with our Carol Service on Tuesday 17th December and running right through until Twelfth Night on 5th January, 2025. We thank you for your continued support, as ever.

Donate to St Peter’s Church Christmas Appeal

Report by local representative of the McCabe Educational Trust, Natasha Albina, November 2024

Natasha visited Al Shurooq where she met with Board members and administration. The school currently has 34 pupils aged 3 – 12 years. 21 pupils who come from Hebron, Jericho and remote parts of the West Bank, live and stay at the school all week as transportation is no longer available to take them home for weekends. Pupils from around Bethlehem commute every day as it is difficult for the school to provide for them to live in-house.

This year the school started taking on social cases of children with visual disabilities and opened a new class for 10 pupils with multiple disabilities and behavioral problems. There are plans to bring blind children from Gaza to the school. 24 teachers are currently employed, in addition to therapists who work with special cases.  

The school is facing an existential financial crisis with an annual deficit of £140,000. October salaries were only possible by taking from the employees protected end of service fund – a drastic measure. The reasons are multiple. A key Kuwaiti donor died who had been paying the full salary bill since Parents are no longer contributing as they have no income because of the Gaza war. The cost of basic necessities in Bethlehem has rocketed because of the war. The Palestinian Authority has no funds and the Ministry of Social Affairs owes the school more than £130,000. The Moslem Awqaf Charitable Trust is a major funder of social institutions in Palestine, but won’t fund a Christian institution – even though most of Al Shurooq’s children are Moslem. The school is very dependant on MET funding.

Some positives. TAM Women Media and Development in Palestine, paid the salary for 3 special education teachers for three months and the Ministry of Education has provided a music teacher who comes regularly to teach the children music and playing on different instruments. Individual benefactors and institutions have always given food supplies so there is no shortage where food is concerned.

To generate some income, Al Shurooq refurbished their basement in order to open an after-school center for children with special needs. There is no such program in Bethlehem.

During the day the basement will be used for the Shurooq school and in the afternoon as an after-school center. We are asked to consider funding two capital projects. Not long ago, the school invested in solar panels on the roof (18 kilowatts) to help with their electricity bill.

This lowered their energy cost by 60%. 14 kilowatts are further needed to cover the whole electric bill. The cost of this project is £15,000. An additional solar installation is required for hot water at a cost of £8.000. They ask us to consider including these projects in our Bethlehem Christmas Gift.

The link below takes you to the website for the school.

Al Shurooq Blind School

Thank you!

Worship for December 2024

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Services for Advent and Christmas

Next weekend sees the first Sunday of Advent when Christians anticipate and remember the birth of Jesus. Advent is a time of quiet contemplation and prayer for four weeks before the festival of Christmas itself. It has its own hymns and carols such as O Come Emanuel, which reflect this beautiful time. Christmas, at the end of December is the most joyous season as we all know and love, with feast and song as the news of Jesus’s birth brings hope and light!

This December, we are delighted to offer worship and activities to reflect both Advent and Christmas in all our villages in the Langtons and Welham Benefices.

Simple list of services for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for Advent and Christmas 2024 - Black text on white background
Advent and Christmas Services for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for December 2024

We have produced a Christmas card with all the details. The card will be delivered to the parishioners of St Peter’s Church this weekend, but for friends further afield, there is a PDF to download below, with all the services listed, along with a Christmas message from our Lay Incumbent, Maxine Johnson.

We are delighted that this year’s card features a remarkable photograph of the church by Melissa Johnston, taken earlier this year with an unprecedented appearance in the night sky of the Aurora Borealis. Thank you Melissa for allowing us to use your lovely image.

Photograph of St Peter's church at night with the colours of the Aurora Borealis in the sky above. The building looks orange with the subtle greens and pinks in the sky behind
St Peter’s Church Aurora Sky by Melissa Johnston
Christmas message for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for Advent and Christmas 2024 - Black text on white background
Christmas message 2024
View and download Christmas Card

We hope you can join us for some of the services but also wish our friends and followers here who live further away, a very peaceful Advent season and a joyful Christmas when it comes. Thank you 🙏

Arocha UK Awards Bronze Eco to St Peter’s Church Langton

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Smiles were all around when a certain email popped into our in box recently. What is it all about? You might well ask! St Peter’s now qualifies as a Bronze Eco Church. After filling in questionnaires on the Arocha UK website, we discussed our care for the churchyard, the flowers and the creatures that inhabit it, as well as the care for our building and our hopes for its future use by our community. We applied to Arocha Uk and were delighted to receive our Bronze Eco Award. We made promises to help protect God’s Earth and its creatures from extinction by reducing pollution, landfill and food waste. This promise applies to St Peter’s Church building and churchyard but also to us as individual members of the church community.

Join us on our Eco Journey

There are a number of initiatives we aim to support at the start of our Eco journey. The churchyard is already a haven to wildlife, (see the example below) but we want to install bug houses and bird boxes and hedgehog houses go encourage more. Can you help us make them or install them? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here by email or reply to this post on our Facebook Page.

See below, just one example of the extraordinary natural habitat found in the churchyard. These tiny fungi form an almost magical landscape and appear in the autumn.

Photo of tiny fungi mushrooms looking like a magical village for woodland sprites and fairies.
The fairy village – tiny fungi growing in St Peter’s Church yard

Just One Thing

We pray to encourage our community to join us in pledging to do “JUST ONE THING” however small to help restore the Earth’s balance. Lifestyle Change does not have to be massive it can be as small as not using paper handkerchiefs, reducing the use of cling film and single use plastic such as bottled water or it could be to set the washing machine to a lower temperature.

Could you think about making a pledge and letting us know? We’d love to hear what you and your family have decided to change in your household. Every step we all take, however small, makes a huge difference.

Fair Trade Produce

The use of Fair Trade produce is so important to ensure that farmers in third world countries have a fair salary and have good working conditions. Would you consider buying Fair Trade produce for your pledge? We want to promote the use of Fair Trade produce in St Peter’s especially during our much-loved Cream Tea Sundays.

PHoto shows a white tea pot and milk jug with a plate of jam, scones and butter on a white tray
Time for tea!

What is YOUR Carbon Footprint?

Finally, one last thought to ponder is to check your own carbon footprint on the website CreationCare.org.uk where you can get your own personalised carbon footprint number. Use this number to update every six months or whenever you have time. What a great thing to do with your children and grandchildren by introducing them to carry on the legacy of caring for God’s Earth.

Visit St Peter’s church and churchyard

St Peter’s is open every day for contemplation and quiet prayer. It welcomes you for those moments when you need a quiet space to get away from the pressures of everyday life or just for somewhere to sit for a while. St Peter’s is always there for all.

Creation is given as a gift to us all and we share responsibility to protect and nurture it.

Alison Thurlby PCC member
Echo family at St Peter’s Church Langton
Feel free to send us pictures on St Peter’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stpeterschurchlangton