wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Christmas video in many languages

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 12/18/2009 3:18:00 PM

>WCC CHRISTMAS VIDEO IN MANY LANGUAGES

This year's Christmas message from the World Council of Churches
(WCC) is available in 17 languages reflecting the linguistic
diversity of the WCC member churches: Arabic (
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7442 ), Chinese (
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Chi.pdf
), Dutch (
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Dut.pdf
), English ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7307 ), Finnish (
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20Message%202009%20Fin.pdf
), French ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7307&L=3 ), Georgian
(
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Geo.pdf
), German ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7307&L=2 ), Greek (
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7476 ), Korean (
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7440 ), Norwegian (
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Nor.pdf
), Portuguese ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7441 ), Romanian (
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Rom.pdf
), Russian ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7307&L=6 ), Samoan
(
http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/2009pdfs/Christmas%20message%202009%20Sam.pdf
), Spanish ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7307&L=4 )and
Swahili ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7477 ). 

Video versions in ten of these languages have been made
available on the WCC website ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7436
)and on YouTube. Offering this message in a variety of languages
is possible thanks to volunteers from within the WCC staff,
member churches and sister organizations. 

The message speaks of Christmas as a time of renewal and
transformation for all creation, even at a time when the earth
and its people are under stress and suffering.

Full text of the Christmas message: He is the image of the
invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;
for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created,
things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers –
all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:15-17 (NRSV)
Light is the radiant image of God’s goodness, in creation and at
Christmas. The Creator commands, “Let there be light!”1– and the
universe takes form. At the nativity of Christ, light breaks
forth in the midst of darkness – and the darkness can never
overcome this glowing testament of the living God.2

Christmas is a season to sing praises,3yet in our time the
reality of environmental destruction undermines the doxology of
creation. The singing of the spheres is obscured by pollution and
manufactured noise, the rhythms of the sea are disturbed by
climate change, the beauty of many manifestations of life is
disfigured by abusive practices rooted in greed. And as the earth
suffers, so must its inhabitants. Already, the poor and other
socially marginalized people find it ever more difficult to lift
their voices in song.

In the days of Mary and Joseph, the emperor Augustus believed
power rested in his hands alone. He decreed that “all the world”
(the biblical word is oikoumene)4should be taxed, and an obscure
couple made their way toward Bethlehem. Yet God had another
purpose in history, and now we realize that thrones, dominions,
rulers and authorities were acting unwittingly in fulfillment of
prophetic imperatives. It is Christ, not the emperor, who is
truly “before all things, and in him all things hold together”.5

Biblical scholar Barbara Rossing suggests that the old, imperial
oikoumene of Caesar – along with modern economic, military and
political empires – is perishing. Yet the prophets and apostles
assure us that God’s creation – a true oikoumenecomprising the
household of God – will be transformed.6

And so we pray for change and offer ourselves as instruments of
transformation.7We live in faith that, in the coming of Jesus
Christ, there is a new creation in which the hope of the angels’
song comes to fruition – God, humanity and all of life shall be
reconciled.8

>Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia
>General Secretary
>World Council of Churches

>Footnotes
>1) Genesis 1:3
>2) John 1:4-5
>3) Luke 2:14
>4) Luke 2:1
>5) Colossians 1:17; Psalm 2:7-10
>6) Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21-22
>7) 2 Corinthians 4:16
>8) 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.