Members of Temple Methodist Church in Budleigh Salterton will celebrate 25 years of partnership with a Lutheran church and school in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, later this month.
The event on Saturday (October 18) at 2.30pm will mark a quarter-century of cooperation between the Devon congregation and the Lutheran Church and School in the Palestinian West Bank, where around 450 students receive a Christian education.
Temple members have supported the school since 1999, sponsoring pupils through their studies and helping several to continue to university, where they trained in subjects such as nursing, accountancy and physiotherapy. Many now work within their communities in the Bethlehem area.
The celebration will feature a video message from school staff, items from the choir and folkdance group, and messages from former students and parents.
Displays of Palestinian life and work will also be shown, along with a sale of olive wood crafts.
The partnership began following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land led by Rev. Jean Hughes, a retired Methodist minister, who said the relationship had been “a blessing for both the school and for Temple’s church family”.
There will also be a special service at Temple Methodist Church on Sunday, October 19, at 10.30am, open to all.
Violence in West Bank and Gaza
So far this year, Israeli forces have carried out almost 7,500 raids across the West Bank, up by 37 per cent compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law. Despite this, Israeli settlers have continued to encroach on Palestinian land, and last week, one Palestinian was killed and 17 people were injured in clashes.
Elsewhere, in Gaza, Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-mediated ceasefire on October 9, involving the release of all Israeli hostages and a partial Israeli withdrawal.
The present conflict, ignited by Hamas’s October 7 attack two years ago, which saw some 1,200 Israelis killed, sparked a brutal response from Israel, leading to the deaths of more than 67,000 Palestinians.
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