Thieves broke into property at an historic church and stole clothing and jars of foreign coins.

The office, choir room and thrift shop at St. Peter’s Church, in St. George’s, were burgled between 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 8 a.m. on Thursday.

According to Reverend David Raths the thief, or thieves, got away with clothing from the thrift shop and foreign coins handed in as donations over the years, but did not break into the church itself, which is highly protected by an alarm system, he said.

“St. Peter’s is the number one tourist attraction of Bermuda and the oldest Protestant Church in the New World. It is very special to all of us here and to many Bermudians so we are very happy no damage was done to the church.”

Rev. Raths said the culprits broke in through the office window and while there was some minor damage it was “nothing too serious”.

He added: “It is very upsetting and it is extremely inconveniencing. Every drawer has been gone into. I do not know what they thought they would find in them.”

It was the first burglary since Rev. Raths took over as reverend five years ago. However, there have been several occasions where vandals have attacked gravestones on the site, dislodging stones dating back to 1854.