5th Gospel Christians
5th Gospel Christians is a registered UK charity
We believe in peace, community and sustainable self-empowerment
We alleviate suffering wherever we can
Who Who are we?
The charity 5th Gospel Christians grew from listening to pilgrims to the Holy Land who saw the plight of Christians and asked, “surely we can do something directly to help?”
We were founder-supporters of the children’s home (opposite)in 2007 in Bethlehem when it began. With the love and dedication of the Sisters and generosity of benefactors It has grown to be a Centre of Excellence in the Middle East for children with disabilities.
5th Gospel Christians set out to listen and give support to people in Bethlehem, in Israel and Jordan.
5th Gospel Christians is governed by Trustees and a Council of Advisors with backgrounds in education, business, healthcare and medicine. Board members and Council have worked for several years in overseas Christian missions.
5th Gospel Christians works from an office in Devon and a base in Jordan with a volunteer team of local Partners.
What did we do in 2023? we turned our attention to Bethlehem and Gaza. In Madaba (Jordan) most Iraqi refugee families received visas for Australia and Canada during the year, and we changed focus to the needs of the Jordanian parish schools and the remaining Iraqi refugee children.
We gave financial assistance and distributed clothes and food boxes
We set up a proposal to teach English in the Madaba schools. We helped support two Iraqi students at the American University in Madaba
We ran activities for adults and children
We connected UK parishes and groups directly with projects in Bethlehem, Gaza and Jordan
Our Story in Jordan 2014-2024
5th Gospel Christians gave direct support to the Christian refugee families from Iraq, with particular focus on the community of 400 souls living in Madaba. These Iraqis, now refugees, refused to denounce their faith and were forced to flee when the Islamist terror group ISIS ( Daesh) seized the Nineveh Plains in the summer of 2014.
5th Gospel Christians also assists the Jordanian parishes coping with the poverty in their parishes and schools, with particular focus on the Catholic parish of St John the Baptist in Madaba hosting Iraqi families.
The Iraqis were given sanctuary in 2014 by the King of Jordan, adding to thousands of Syrian refugees, but Christians didn’t go to the camps and were looked after by parishes in Jordan. Della had been in the Holy Land since 2006 bringing bespoke pilgrimages from the UK and engaging closely with the Christian communities, and was immediately aware of their arrival.
As pilgrims, we met them living on the floors of church halls and in porta cabins in church car parks. Pilgrims soon joined the efforts of charities to raise awareness and crisis funding to help the Iraqis. Keeping hope alive and looking to the future, they also began to fund English lessons and make links of friendship with parishes in the UK.
Over the years, support moved towards providing for longer-term needs. As UN refugees “in transit”, the Iraqis aren’t allowed work permits in Jordan, yet it is unsafe for them to return to their devastated villages. Fresh waves of Iraqi Christians have been coming since 2017, hoping soon to leave for a Western Country. Many have now received However, overall only about 15% have received visas for the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. The rest are “in limbo”, legally unable to work and awaiting re-settlement. Just waiting.
Why “5th Gospel”? What does it mean?
“Five gospels record the life of Jesus. Four you will find in books, and one you will find in the Land they call Holy. Read the fifth gospel and the world of the four will open to you.”
Bargil Pixner OSB, With Jesus Through Galilee: According to the 5th Gospel (Corazin Publishing, Israel 1992)
5th Gospel refers to the land where Jesus lived
Now understood as modern Israel, Palestine and Jordan
The term is attributed to St Gerasimus of the Jordan (d. AD 475)
5th GOSPEL CHRISTIANS
Patron: Bishop Emeritus Christopher Budd, RIP
Chaplain: Fr Gilmour McDermott
Trustees
Joanna Bartholomew
Della Shenton
Jordan
Iptisam Al Hirsh (Liaison)
Bassam Zaki
Australia
Salaam Kikhwa
Some Team members in 2023
Della Shenton
Chair, Secretary & Field Worker
For the last 15 years Della has worked in the Holy Land with her Christian Pilgrimage Company and with several charities. She is passionately concerned with issues of justice and peace; read Social Anthropology at SOAS, Theology at Cambridge and Heythrop, and has an MA in Theology.
Judy Ring
Treasurer
Judy is a physiotherapist who served for 7 years in Africa with the VSO before working at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital for twenty years. She has been actively concerned for the Christians of the Middle East since 2013 and since 2017 directly involved in support for the Iraqi refugees
Rev Gilmour McDermott
Chaplain
Fr Gilmour is a parish priest in Cornwall and has been leading groups to the Holy Land for nearly 30 years. He first visited the Iraqi Christian refugees in Jordan in 2014 and has visited Jordan each year since then. His parish is actively involved with 5th Gospel Christians.
Bishop Emeritus Christopher Budd RIP
Patron
Our deeply loved Patron, Bishop Christopher, died on 1st April 2023. He was Bishop of Plymouth from 1986 - 2013 and became passionately engaged with the Holy Land following his visit with the Catholic Bishops’ Holy Land Coordination in 2010. He led a Diocesan Pilgrimage with 5th Gospel Retreats in 2012, again in 2019 and attended a 5th Gospel Retreat at the Sea of Galilee in 2014. May he Rest in Peace and Rise in Glory.
Together in Faith
The mission of 5th Gospel Christians with people of all Faiths and none, is to pray and work for Peace in the Holy Lands. We are inspired and renewed by the Spirit of Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus, Light and Hope of the world. We belong to a huge Christian family and invite you to join the growing network of care and support for the Christian Community in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, in Israel and in Jordan.
The charity developed from the mission of 5th Gospel Retreats, a Catholic and Ecumenical pilgrimage company set up by Della Shenton in 2006 to bring Christians to the Holy Land to encounter Jesus through the Land, the Word, and the people, the “Living Stones” of Christianity. Pilgrims increasingly asked the company to help them give support to the Christians of Palestine, Israel and Jordan. At first 5th Gospel Retreats worked with other charities, until in 2019 we registered 5th Gospel Christians as an independent charity.