Next month I am mounting my trusty steed and peddling round 100 miles of the Yorkshire Dales. It’s a sponsored ride to raise money for the Riding Lights Summer School.

To sponsor me follow this link and make your donation. 

Specifically I’m doing the ride to raise money to bring four students from the Christian Palestinian Community in Bethlehem to the UK. They will join the summer school and return home with new skills to help their community to tell their story.

This follows from the Theatre Company’s production of Salaam Bethlehem last year.

Riding Lights – Past Shows
SALAAM BETHLEHEM
A Riding Lights Theatre Company Production

For the past 18 months we have been making steady progress towards a new play for the season of Advent running right up to Christmas 2007. A play with undertones for all our Christmases, Bridget Foremans SALAAM BETHLEHEM is set in the little town today where the streets are definitely darker beneath the concrete slabs but where the everlasting light still shines.

In May last year we met some of the dwindling Palestinian Christian community, discovering a remarkable range of people whose simple message to Riding Lights was Pray for us, tell our story, visit us.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions and because both inside and outside the Church issues to do with Israel seem to be so contentious… this is not a political play… or it is only political insofar as anything that deals with people is naturally political. We are not colouring in a new roadmap for the Middle East peace process. We are seeking to stand alongside brothers and sisters in the church of Christ. And how grateful all of us should be that they are still there.