21 December 2006
Christmas message from the President of the Methodist Conference (1)
Revd Graham Carter, President of The Methodist Conference, says
in his Christmas message that efforts to replace Christmas with
non-religious holiday events are either seeking 'to enforce a kind
of sameness or are afraid of religion.' Graham, says that fears
about Christmas offending people of other faiths are misplaced:
'genuinely religious people of all faiths are happy about
celebrating Christmas, seeing it not as divisive but enriching the
field of faith.'
The full text of Graham's message follows:
'Christmas is a down to earth celebration. We celebrate a God who
is not far off but one who is deeply involved in human life.
Christmas is not about fairy tales and far-fetched beliefs. It is
about the realities of human living and the acknowledgement that
God is with us, even in the dark and dingy places.
'There are those who would hide the celebration of Christmas.
Afraid of imagined dispute and conflict they want to have everyone
celebrate 'Winterval' or 'Winterfest'. These are not people who
have a genuine interest in equality. They are people who either
want to enforce a kind of sameness or are afraid of religion.
Genuinely religious people of all faiths are happy about
celebrating Christmas, seeing it not as divisive but enriching the
field of faith. As Christians we would not want to stop Jews
celebrating Hanukkah, Muslims celebrating Eid or Hindus celebrating
Diwali. Nor do people of other religions want to stop the
celebration of Christmas.
'Over the centuries, Christianity has shown a remarkable ability to
use existing festivals and imbue them with deeper meaning. The
Church took over a Roman celebration to celebrate the birth of
Christ in mid-winter, and in Britain we still use the pagan name
for Easter. Now that some people want to go back and
de-Christianise Christmas, to secularise it or re-institute pagan
ceremonies, we ought to be more particular about making sure ours
is a truly Christian celebration. We should resist attempts to
trivialise an understanding that brings a deeper meaning than
simply the rising of the sun in the winter sky once more.
'The Christmas message reminds us that Christianity is a
world-affirming religion, not world-denying. In our Christmas
story, God becomes human in a very ordinary way. The stories of
Mary, the shepherds and the wise men may sound exceptional, but in
their telling they emphasise how ordinary the event was. Mary's
song, the Magnificat, reminds us that she was from a lowly family;
there wasn't even a proper bed for Jesus when he was born;
shepherding was among the lowest of occupations, yet the shepherds
were the first to be given the news of the birth; the wise men
thought Jesus would have been born in a palace, but even with all
their wisdom, they got it wrong.
'The good news of Christmas is that the most ordinary of people are
counted special in God's eyes and they have a special purpose.
Well-being and good life do not depend on status or wealth or
possessions. This means all of human life is valuable and the
charitable acts so popular at Christmas are not just out of the
kindness of people's hearts, but express the reality of how things
are supposed to be. 'Winterval' and 'Winterfest' give rise to
selfish indulgence. Christmas celebrates the good life for
all.'
This message is also available as an audio file. Visit
www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.webradio