Glass angels send seasonal messages of despair from the Holy Land

Bethlehem is peddling its own version of swords into ploughshares this gloomy Christmas: stained glass angels fashioned from bottles and windows shattered when the Israeli army stormed into town and laid siege to the Church of the Nativity last spring.

The blue, green, red and brown figures, about four inches tall and joined with copper wire, are made in an ecumenical Christian workshop by 200 Arab women from neighbouring refugee camps and villages. Norwegian churches alone ordered 1,000 for about £4 each over the internet.

The craftswomen, aged 20 to 40, are drawn from Christian and Muslim communities. Mitri Raheb, a 40-year-old Lutheran pastor who runs the project, calls them the poorest of the poor.

But the angels are not just meant to give their families an income. "We want to send a message about the brokenness of life in the Holy Land this year," the pastor, who was born in Bethlehem, explained, "but also a message to look for healing."

For all that, Pastor Raheb confessed that he was having as bleak a Christmas as everyone else. "With no lights, no decorations, no tree," he said, "you don't feel that it's Bethlehem, you don't feel it's Christmas. The Gospels tell us there was no room at the inn. Today there are no rooms booked at the inn."