wfn.org | Christmas Message - NCCCUSA General Secretary

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Web: www.ncccusa;org; E-mail: news@ncccusa.org
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227

Christmas Message 2000
by Dr. Bob Edgar
General Secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
USA

In a season rich in tradition, one of the most beloved Christmas customs is
the symbolic re-creation of the scene of our Savior’s birth 2000 years ago
in Bethlehem.  In homes and congregations everywhere, reverent hands
carefully arrange figures representing the holy family, the magi, the
shepherds, and the animals found in that long-ago stable—a tangible reminder
of the coming of the infant Prince of Peace into a troubled world.

This Christmas season, as nativity sets once again come out of storage and
are reassembled, our television screens and other media are full of very
different, very violent scenes from the Holy Land.  A delegation of U.S.
church leaders in which the National Council of Churches participated went
to the Middle East to see these scenes firsthand and to speak with people in
the region—in Bethlehem itself and in Jerusalem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and
Gaza.

The delegation returned determined to tell the truth of the horror they had
seen.  They told of precious Palestinian and Israeli lives lost, of exploded
shells made in the USA found in ambulances and family homes, of
centuries-old olive groves uprooted, of Palestinian communities suffering in
hunger and poverty as the conflict puts hundreds of thousands of people out
of work.

All that they saw and heard underlines the urgency of efforts to seek peace
and justice in the region. After speaking with religious and political
leaders of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike, the
delegation outlined nine steps that are essential for a durable peace,
beginning with a prompt end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas.

In the wake of the renewed violence of recent weeks, prayer and action are
needed more than ever to achieve these goals.  Member communions of the
National Council of Churches have pledged their support for reconciliation,
healing and a just peace both for the Israeli and Palestinian communities.
We are also joining with others in an international prayer vigil for Middle
East peace that began on the first Sunday in Advent. I invite you to join in
this great vigil and to pray also for people in every part of the world who
are affected by conflict.

As we celebrate Christmas in a world divided, may every crèche, every carol,
every candle, every sacred symbol, renew in us an awareness of God’s
reconciling love, of the transforming power of the Spirit and of our oneness
in Christ.  Receiving these gifts, we can be the peacemakers and the
standard-bearers of justice that we are called to be.

To each one of you who receives this message, I wish a joy-filled and
peaceful Christmas.  May all the beloved customs of this holy season recall
for you the gift of God in Christ that marked the first Christmas.  May the
hope and joy of Christmas thus be rekindled in your heart and be a blessing
to all around you and to a troubled world.

-end-