KEY POINTS:
Keep Faith
Bishop Patrick Dunn, Catholic Bishop of Auckland
Several articles have appeared recently in the Herald and elsewhere about attempts to dumb down Christmas. Not to dumb down the external trimmings but to obscure, even erase, the "reason for the season".
The flipside of this "war against Christmas" is that here, as well as in Britain and the United States there is a backlash or at least a wake-up call to Christians and others who value our traditions. I'm all for inclusiveness and respect for the many cultures and faiths that have become part of today's New Zealand.
It's interesting to note that people of other traditions and cultures are not waging this war, but rather those who, calling it inclusiveness, or political correctness, or cultural anthropology or just plain secularisation, wish to inoculate our society against "religion".
I read recently a delightfully wry comment from a columnist who asked how the PC brigade would take Christ and the church out of Christchurch!
A society that fails to esteem the heritage upon which its very foundations and way of life are based loses its way. It becomes one without a sense of identity, definition or direction, where people are vulnerable to passing ideologies, and political persuasions. We do not see this happening in those societies that hold fast to their traditions and know who they are.
Top marks to NZ Post for agreeing to "stick" to Christian scenes on their Christmas stamps, and to those retailers and some Santa Parade organisers around the country who are not ashamed or afraid to display cribs and nativity scenes.
And thumbs down to those retailers and local councils who are too faint-hearted to refer to the birth of Jesus in their Christmas displays and decorations. In the Auckland CBD a few cute angels hover over Queen Street, but the city's flagship Aotea Square displays not a trace to signal that Christmas is here. Go to Sydney if you want to see what Christmas means. Are we ready to stand and stare it out and keep faith with Christ this Christmas?
Glad tidings of great joy
Commissioner Hillmon Buckingham, The Salvation Army
When the shepherds living out in the fields on a Judean hillside heard the astounding announcement of an angelic visitor, the Bible says, "they were greatly afraid". However, the news was good and their fear dissipated somewhat when the Heavenly Messenger announced good tidings of great joy.
The record states it was "great joy!" and that should really interest us who live in a world often overcome by sorrow, pain, and blatant misunderstanding.
To meditate on the word joy will do us no harm. It seems to me it is like the star that guided the wise men to Bethlehem, it is a set-piece in the record.
The Bible presents joy as having a spiritual as well as a very scriptural source. The problem is, our preoccupation with self stifles the influence of joy.
Every word we use has a a family tree, a composite of preceding ideas. Joy is no different. In the first place, the word means association with another. Then again, admiration for another. Yet again, desiring another above all else. In digging deeper we find it means seeking the company of another above all else!
Truth to tell, the angel who announced this great joy indicated, that if humans were to ever know true joy they would need to come into close association with the life, teaching and ministry of that little baby boy who was lying in the manger in Bethlehem in the company of wondering parents, who were in close association with the source of GREAT JOY!
It is time for all of us to move closer to the to the person who is the source of eternal joy.
A part for all in the greatest opening night
Rodney Macann, the new Baptist national leader and one of New Zealand's leading opera singers.
For more than half of my working life I've been an opera singer, one of those strange people who make weird noises, dress up in bizarre clothes and lay into lashings of makeup - and that's the guys! Actually, it's great. It's one of the most exciting, scary and fulfilling experiences on the planet. It's just about perfect (when it's going well). It holds possibilities for so many different types of people with their voices, the variety of instruments, construction skills, consoling skills (after the devastating reviews), literary skills, dressmaking, truck driving and so it goes on.
Then there is that participation in the creation of something new, sometimes drawing on the old texts but infusing them with new life. Opera singers are people on a mission willing you to love their product, be challenged, expand your horizons, be deeply satisfied and celebrate the extraordinary gift of music and everything that goes with it.
For me what is so totally wonderful about the greatest opening night in history is that in the birth of Jesus, God has invited us to join in the creation of something "new". New hope, new beginnings, new life - that is the gift Jesus is to us. When we celebrate the greatest opening night there is a place for all of us.
I sang at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1990 and discovered to my amazement that it was a "hard currency" theatre. You had to be wealthy or have the right friends to participate.
With the greatest opening night we are all invited as participants as all of our talents are celebrated. Well, that's how it's meant to be, that's how it was on the night itself.
The celebration of Christmas offers all of us the opportunity to recapture the wonder of the original event. "O holy child of Bethlehem - be born in us today."
Think of others and act in spirit of Christmas
Rev Dr John Salmon and Mrs Mary West, President and vice-president, Methodist Church of NZ
Many of us spend all year waiting for Christmas because it signals holidays and family gatherings.
Although the season has its origins in Christian storytelling around the birth of Jesus, for us in New Zealand, from our many cultures and faiths, it has come to signify something broader. For many, it is a time to gather with family and friends, regardless of its religious significance or the faith we adhere to, or whether Jesus was actually born on December 25.
For many others, Christmas is a time of stress rather than celebration. It is certainly not all "happy families": domestic violence statistics show that; levels of anxiety and stress disorders show that, too.
At Christmas, let's remember that "family" takes a wide variety of forms and does not necessarily include a place of safety. After all, the Christian story says Jesus was born to a young unmarried mother. No birthcare facility, only a stable with animals.
Christmas 2006 calls us to consider the babies - and their mothers - being born in war-torn countries, possibly as the result of rape. And to remember the babies being born to mothers suffering from HIV.
The Christmas season is not just a set of "nice stories". Its message of peace and goodwill is about caring for people everywhere who suffer from the "badwill" that infects humanity, or from the violence that obliterates peace.
As we share our feasts, let us remember those who dread this time: the families who are unable to provide the toys that advertisements bombard our homes with; the people who turn to refuge homes to protect themselves and their children from abuse.
Let's spare a thought for those outside our immediate family and act to offer care and hospitality in the spirit of Christmas.
Don't forget the joy of giving
Peter & Bev Mortlock, Senior Pastors, City Impact Church
I'm sure you've noticed how the true Christmas message has diminished into a frenzy of media campaigns, busy end-of-year schedules, financial pressure and mad last-minute shopping.
Retailers would have you believe Christmas is all about spending money and all of a sudden the joy of giving has got lost in the pressures of gift buying!
But Christmas really is about giving. It is a time of great joy as we celebrate the ultimate gift, God's only Son given to redeem mankind. The birth of Jesus was literally God coming into the world and saying, "I am with you; I desire a relationship with you and am prepared to pay a great price to do so, behold my only Son."
As parents and grandparents we can only begin to understand the massive price God the Father made when He gave His only Son. Just imagine having to sacrifice your child, and yet this is exactly what God did for me and for you. What an incredible thought!
The birth of Jesus Christ has made a way for each of us to live a life of abundance and blessing, with the promise of eternal life in heaven. This is God's awesome gift to us and the very reason we exchange gifts at Christmas time.
We truly hope you will take a moment to thank God for this gift, the very best present you could ever receive and the only one that will last eternally.
We invite you to celebrate at our place, with two special one-hour services; Christmas Eve 11pm and Christmas Day 9am at 794 East Coast Rd, Browns Bay. Phone 0800 CHURCH or visit www.cityimpactchurch.com for information. Enjoy giving this Christmas - and have a happy New Year!
Stamping out a message
Archbishop David Moxon, Co-Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
You can learn about a country just by looking at its Christmas stamps.
Last Tuesday, the Herald quoted Ivor Masters, the New Zealand Post stamps manager, as saying that our Christmas stamps - which often show Christian nativity scenes - are extremely popular.
As far as the thousands of children who sent in designs for New Zealand Post's Christmas stamp competition are concerned, there's little doubt about it: the Three Wise Men, the Holy Family and the Christ Child are woven into the fabric of Christmas here.
That's not how it is in Britain. The Sun recently carried a story referring to "a war against Christmas that tends to erase all the traditions of Christmas". And it's not the case in Italy, either, apparently. The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano has remarked on the disappearance of all religious reference on Christmas stamps there: the Star of Bethlehem and The Three Wise Men have gone, displaced by snowmen and reindeer.
In the United States, where they get paranoid about breaches of separation between church and state, some shy away from Christmas images. Though Wal-Mart staff have now been told that, rather than wish their customers "happy holidays", they may use "Merry Christmas".
But what does this suggest for us in Aotearoa New Zealand? For a start, that Christmas here is truly unique: The first positive encounter between Maori and Pakeha was, in fact, at a Christmas service on Christmas Day 1814 at Oihi, in the Bay of Islands.
Samuel Marsden had been invited to Aotearoa by Ruatara to share agricultural know-how, education and the Gospel. Marsden, in turn, needed Ruatara's hospitality to succeed in his mission.
We have so much to give thanks for about that first Christmas Day: It could become the basis of our own Thanksgiving Day. At very least, let's reissue the stamps that celebrate that Oihi Christmas - and celebrate the message of goodwill that it brought us then, and offers us still.
The power of remembering
Bishop Brian Tamaki, Destiny Church
I recently preached a message titled "The power of remembering". The central theme was the importance of remembering "important" things. Yet it's also something of a paradox because we can spend a lot of time remembering things we ought to forget and forgetting things we ought to remember!
Christmas has become a highly commercialised event. The "reason for the season" has been lost in the hype of holidays, parties and celebrations. In fact, it's barely acceptable to even mention Jesus any more. I recently heard a story where Jesus' character was taken out of a Christmas play because other religions might be offended. Sad but true! The old war veterans have a phrase: "Lest we forget." There is something in the power of "remembering" that serves to anchor us in those things that really matter.
If there are three things I will remember this Christmas, the first will be my family. How important it is for us parents and grandparents to celebrate family and remind our children just how very loved and special they are.
Second, I will remember those people who in their own way have made a special contribution to my life. Ultimately, I will remember God for who He is and what He has done for me. After all, it was God who sent His only Son into the world that we might have life in all its abundance. Jesus is the reason for this season. I pray that you remember Him this Christmas.
Our own carols
Pamela Tankersley, Moderator, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
We love singing carols in our church - all the old favourites.
They speak of the reason for the Christmas season: that we celebrate the deep truth that God chose to live among his people, as a vulnerable baby, born in a stable in Bethlehem, 2000 years ago. It's an amazing, eternally new story.
But some years ago, we in the New Zealand church began to wonder why it was we borrowed the imagery of a European winter as the setting of the story. Snow and cold would not have been the predominating conditions in Bethlehem of Judea.
In the past few years we have been enjoying carols such as this one from hymn writer Shirley Murray: An Upside down Christmas.
Carol our Christmas, an upside down Christmas,
snow is not falling and leaves are not bare,
Carol our summer and welcome the Christ child,
warm in our sunshine and sweetness of air.
Right side up Christmas belongs to the universe,
made in the moment a woman gives birth;
Hope is the Jesus gift, love is the offering
everywhere, anywhere , here on the earth.
This is what we wish this Christmas for all New Zealanders, their families and friends: the warm presence of a summertime Christ to change our corner of the universe and our living, bringing hope and love in abundance, peace on earth and new beginnings in 2007. Seasons greetings and God bless.
