In 2000, St. Peter's entered into a companionship relationship with the Kothapallimitta Pastorate, Diocese of Madras (now Chennai), India., a desperately poor, remote, rural area spreading over 3850 square kilometers with just one pastor, one main church, and thirty-eight village congregations. Later, St. Alban's, Oakland, NJ joined the Companionship.   Conversations with the pastor suggested the need for a primary school for the Dalit ("untouchable") children of the area.  For seven years a significant proportion of our outreach grants went towards the construction of St. Peter's School, which was completed in 2007. 

Even while construction was going on, the school was operating in makeshift quarters serving a mixture of Christian, Muslim, Dalit and Hindu children who now number 300 and eat, play, nap and study together.  Several of the children have won prestigious scholarships to government-run boarding schools.  St. Peter's members have made trips to Kothapallimitta and two of our young people spent a summer there teaching in the school.  There have been three visits to Morristown by the pastors of Kothapallimitta.   A group of our parishioners is now raising funds to purchase computers for the school.  For a complete history of the Companionship, see Kitty Ferguson's wonderful "short history of the companionship":  "Village Moved to Higher Ground."

Also see what some St. Peter's and St. Alban's parishioners have to say about their involvement with the Companionship: this is how lives have been changed and hearts opened (PDF).