Diocesan News17 Dec 09

Christmas Message 2009 from the Church Leaders in Derry

Christmas is a time to celebrate the love and goodness of God for His grace in giving His Son for our salvation.
It is a time for giving and receiving in the spirit of the Season. The message of Christmas is one of hope, peace and love.
We send you our personal greetings at this time and we pray that God would enrich your lives over Christmas and into the New Year.

This year we have taken a verse from the Old Testament as a focus for our greeting:

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6

The Christ child is the "Wonderful Counsellor":

It is a very great pleasure to offer Christmas blessings and benedictions to the City in the name of the Wonderful Counsellor, and I am delighted to join with my friends and fellow Church leaders to do so.

'What would you say to your sixteen year old self?' was the topic for discussion on a recent radio program. What would your answer be?

I met a man called Mark during the year who told me of how God had helped him through a particularly difficult time in his life. If was evident to me that the Wonderful Counsellor had been at work. From potential shipwreck Mark's life is now on an even keel again and he is presently working on a doctoral thesis in clinical psychology.

The Baby of Bethlehem has lived up to his billing as the Wonderful Counsellor. The Gospels tell the story and so do millions of Christians across the centuries and across the world today.

What would I say to my sixteen year old self? I'd say 'Entrust your life to the Wonderful Counsellor: his way is always the best way and his wisdom beyond compare.' And I hope I'd be listening!

I pray you have a wonderful Christmas with the Wonderful Counsellor, and a happy New Year in the company of your Saviour, Lord and Friend, Jesus Christ.

The Rev Sam McGuffin
Chairman of District,
The Methodist Church in Ireland

The Christ Child is the "Mighty God"

Sacred Scripture announces the coming child, as 'Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'.

Prior to the coming of the child, the human understanding of the title 'Mighty God' must have been so limited.  God, who is perfect, holy, without beginning or end, must have been remote from human understanding.  With the coming of Jesus, he enlightened our understanding when he said 'The Father and I are one' and 'To know me is to know the Father'.

At Christmas this year, we welcome and recall Jesus coming among us over two millennia ago.  He came 'to do the will of the Father' and, through his preaching and his example of life, he invites us to do likewise.  This is the joyful challenge which Christmas presents to us.  We are invited to give Jesus the priority in our lives which is our calling as Christians.

May Christmas this year be Christ-centred.  For us, the Christian community of this city and beyond, the verses from Jeremiah are our inspiration - 'I have not lost sight of my plans for you, it is your welfare I have in mind, for you, too, I have a destiny and a hope.  Cry out to me and you shall prosper.  Look for me and you shall find me' (Jer 29: 11-12,14a).

I wish you a Christ-centred and Happy Christmas.

The Most Rev Dr Séamus Hegarty
The Roman Catholic
Bishop of Derry

The Christ Child is the "Everlasting Father"

What kind of person will this Bethlehem child be? In being described as Everlasting Father, we learn that Jesus is to be for us a caring father, present and engaged with us and our world, with an interest in us that will never waver, will never be absent and will never come to an end - he is and will be a 'father forever', as one bible translator puts it.

On Father's Day, President Barak Obama addressed one of the most urgent social issues in his country - the need for caring, responsible, engaged, long-term fathers. Obama's own father was absent for most of his upbringing, and with two daughters of his own, Obama has considerable personal experience of what is at stake here.

Many people today long for that sense of a stable, loving, consistent, dependable father. As Christians we are reminded that in Christ Jesus - who was born at Bethlehem, who died for us at Calvary, and who was raised from the tomb for us, we have a 'father forever', from whom neither time nor death can separate us.

In wishing you a very happy Christmas, I encourage you to come close with wonder and with awe to Jesus Christ. If you have chosen to be absent from him for whatever reason, know that he longs to be present with you this Christmas and always.

The Right Rev Ken Good
The Church of Ireland
Bishop of Derry and Raphoe

The Christ Child is the "Prince of Peace"

Jesus, whose birth we are celebrating is the Prince of Peace. He came to make peace between God and mankind. He did this by His sacrificial death on the Cross.

Jesus challenges His followers to be peace makers. God's desire is that we should be at peace with Him and with our neighbours. Jesus said that peace makers would be blessed by God.

Our society always needs God's peace. Every family and every home needs His peace. The Lord Jesus Christ gives a quality of peace that is unique and supernatural. His peace will keep our emotional lives steady and our rational lives on an even keel.

The Prince of Peace whose birth we rejoice in at this time of the year gives us grace to be peace makers. Making peace is never easy. It cost Jesus His life.

Peace in our society can be easily broken. There are many evils that can take peace away - drug abuse, greed and of course the awful reality of terrorism. Peace is too precious for us to allow it to be robbed from our children. Our City longs for peace. As individuals we desire it.

Christmas is filled with the light and hope of the Christ child. May Jesus the Prince of Peace give you His supernatural peace so that your Christmas may be blessed, happy and joyful.

Rev Dr Joseph Fell
Moderator of the Presbytery
of Derry and Donegal
of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.