School cancels support for charity working in Ukraine after one complaint about Christian beliefs

Apr 24, 2022 by Jill

from Christian Concern:

An independent school with an evangelical ethos has cancelled its support for a charity providing emergency humanitarian support in Ukraine after one complaint about its Christian beliefs on marriage.

One set of parents, demanding St Lawrence College, Ramsgate drop its support for international charity Samaritan Purse’s Operation Christmas Child (OCC) programme, was enough to see the school capitulate and withdraw future support.

Samaritan’s Purse holds to biblical beliefs, shared by the mainstream churches across the world on human sexuality and biblical marriage.

Other parents have described the move of the fee-paying college as a: “betrayal of Christian children and parents at the school.”

However, on a web page created by the complainants, which has since been deleted, the parents, who are being supported by Humanists UK, said: ‘It’s time for the school to change, not us.’

Humanists UK actively campaign to eradicate faith schools from the education system.

St. Lawrence College, whose charitable objectives include a commitment to evangelical beliefs, had started supporting Samaritan’s Purse OCC programme in 2021.

The humanitarian and evangelical initiative describes itself as showing: “God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

Since 1990, more than 186 million children in over 160 countries have experienced support through OCC.

In March, in response to the Ukraine crisis, Samaritan’s Purse delivered some 660,000 Operation Christmas Child gift-filled shoebox to the country, in partnership with more than 3,200 churches.

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