wfn.org | "Baby Jesus is radical in waiting" - Joel Edwards

["EAUK Press Office" <press@eauk.org>]

For Immediate Release: 25th December 1998

Baby Jesus was a radical in waiting who would grow up to
challenge institutions, Rev Joel Edwards, general director of the
Evangelical Alliance UK, told a television audience this 
morning.

Speaking on the GMTV's Christmas Day broadcast, Joel Edwards
summed up 1998 as a year of war and peace.  He said: "I think the
whole year has been so much about war and peace.  On the 16th
December you have President Clinton coming back from a peace trip
in the Middle East, gets off the plane and sends missiles to
Iraq.  That real tension is a part of what this year seems to
have been about."

He added: "I think what springs out to me is that amongst all the
tragedy we go through in life there is still the indomitable
spirit of humanity, there is a sense of hope which was present
throughout the year.

"This whole idea of peace has to be central to Christmas.  Baby
Jesus in the manger may be the start of the story from the
Christmas tradition.  But that baby in the manger is also your
radical in waiting.  He is going to get up and challenge
institutions, challenge hypocrisy and tell us about right
attitudes to other people.

"He gets on a cross and says to us that personal peace is
actually the most important way to community peace.  

"It is a radical thing, it is a real thing.  If there is anything
triumphant about the Christmas story it is that God is among
people.  God's peace isn't escapism, it really is a sense of
positive peace and positive relationships in the midst of some
very tragic circumstances.  That is the triumph of what Christmas
is all about." 

He added: "The spirit of Christmas is about a God of goodness
amongst people and who challenges all of us whoever we are and
wherever we are to reflect that goodness to other people not just
over this Christmas but throughout the coming year."

The Evangelical Alliance represents over one million Christians
in 30 denominations throughout the UK.  Jamaican born Joel
Edwards became general director last year, becoming the first
Black churchman to lead the alliance in its 152 year history.

ENDS

For more information page senior communications officer Gavin
Drake on 0941-100200 (159312). 

Or, from 4th January:

Gavin Drake, gdrake@eauk.org
0171 207 2117 or + 44 171 207 2117

or

Jill Howard, jhoward@eauk.org 
0171 207 2116 or + 44 171 207 2116 

Evangelical Alliance UK,
Whitefield House,
186 Kennington Park Road,
London, SE11  4BT

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