wfn.org | WCC Christmas Message

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release

N.B.  Embargoed: Wednesday, 16 December 1998 

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 1998
by
Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser
General Secretary, World Council of Churches

Everyone prefers good news to bad.  The year which is about to end,
however, has brought more bad news than good.

In Asian countries millions of people have lost their jobs in the wake of
the financial crisis.  Russians continue to fear for the future of their
country.  In many parts of the world tens of thousands have lost their
homes as a consequence of floods and hurricanes.  Throughout the
year wars have taken their toll of innocent civilians and have added to
the already-existing ranks of millions of refugees. 

Even when there is good news it is seldom reported, and when it is
many cannot see that it makes any difference; the bad news heavily
outweighs the good, or so it seems.

Is there any reason to hope for better news as we move into the last
year before the end of the millennium?

Christmas is the time when the good news of the salvation of the world
is proclaimed and celebrated.  Those to whom this good news was first
communicated - the shepherds in the fields - had little for which to hope. 
They were among the excluded of their time.  They lived under the
occupying force of the Roman Empire.  The shepherds, and all the world
at that time, experienced the impact of a kind of first century
globalisation.  They knew at first hand how imperial decrees promulgated
in distant centres of power put additional burdens on ordinary people. 

What difference to such a world, then, did the message make which the
angel addressed to the terrified shepherds?  The angel proclaimed, "Do
not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all
the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is
the Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).

This good news was not, and is not a message of vague optimism and
generalised hope.  All news must relate to reality and be verifiable in time
and place.  News is not fiction but fact; it must be about what has
actually happened.

So it was for the shepherds.  They decided to go and see, as they put it,
"this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us"
(Luke 2:15).  They went and they did see.  What the shepherds had
been told was correct and they became eye-witnesses to the beginning
of a new era - to the new reign of salvation.

The same good news of Christmas still makes a difference at the end of
the second millennium after the birth of Jesus.

A few days ago, the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches
ended in Harare, Zimbabwe, with a message of joyful expectation and
hope, "for all the people".  Those people are in Africa and the entire
oikoumene, the whole inhabited world.

The Assembly not only celebrated the 50th anniversary, the jubilee of the
World Council of Churches; it also heard and acclaimed the message of
God's jubilee which is "good news to the poor", and which proclaims
"the year of the Lord's favour" (Luke 4:18-19).

This good news exists today and is verifiable wherever Christian hope is
turned into action.  God's jubilee becomes a fact when those in bondage
are released, when debts are forgiven, wealth is redistributed and
where the earth is respected and renewed as God's good creation.

God's jubilee also means we are reconciled to God and each other
through Jesus Christ who comes to us again this Christmas.

In a world seemingly intent on tearing itself apart, the Christian Hope that
God's way of justice, peace and reconciliation is possible, and that
millions deep down desire this, is the best news anyone could want.

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 332, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but
works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest governing body is the
Assembly, which meets approximately every seven years.  The WCC
was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is
headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church
in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Press and Information Office
Tel:  (41.22) 791.61.52/51
Fax:  (41.22) 798 13 46
E-Mail: jwn@wcc-coe.org
http://www.wcc-coe.org

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