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  Christmas greetings from the moderator
... pdf version
    

Christmas 2007


Dear Friends in Christ:

I recall as a child in Sunday School joining with my fellow classmates in singing with great gusto (especially at this time of the year), a hymn which began with these lines:

Advent tells us Christ is near
Christmas tells us Christ is here . . .


Although even then, as now, we began celebrating the “here” during the weeks when we should have been concentrating of the “near”, there is, I think, some justification for letting the wonderful events of Christmas overflow into the weeks that come before and then into all that will follow. And why not? This is a celebration of the most unique event in all of history. In no other religion or faith do we find the supreme god actually becoming part of the world and its inhabitants that He had created – for no other reason than He loved us so deeply!

As we bask in the reality of that love expressed so well in the touching images of the Manger Scene, I pray that the joy and innocence we experienced as children may be restored to us again this year. Then, as we shed the cynicism, doubt and frustration that clouds our vision and become as little children, may we truly see the little Child – as if for the first time.

Many of us this Christmas are emerging from the doubt and darkness that have overshadowed us for far too long in our pilgrimage, and for the first time are being given a glimpse that there is a way forward that allows us to retain our rich Anglican Heritage while at the same time being able to remain unswervingly faithful to the Scriptures and the absolute uniqueness of the Baby whose birth we are celebrating. As the “Star in the East” later led the Magi to Him, so today we still can find Him by the light which shines to us through the pages of His Holy Word.

This has been, and will continue to be, a difficult journey on which we are privileged to have been called. Christmas will give us an opportunity to reflect on where we have been and where He still requires us to go. May our efforts result in a positive response to the question He so pointedly asked in Luke 18 v. 8:
Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? I believe that our ongoing efforts, aimed at preserving an Anglican Church in which that Faith continues to be found and proclaimed, will be the greatest gift we ever can give Him.

May the true meaning of this wonderful season be yours, and may it bring you and your loved ones deep and abiding happiness”

In the Infant Jesus,
+Donald


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