Christmas Messages
Spiritual leaders reflect on the meaning of Jesus' birth for our world today
Posted December 24, 2018
Bishop Susan Bell, along with all the staff at Cathedral Place, wish you and yours a very merry and blessed Christmas season.
Our provincial metropolitan, Archbishop Anne Germond, has written a Christmas message to all Anglicans within the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario.
It reads, in part:
In this season of joy and gladness we Christians are called to do what the Jews refer to as “Tikkun Olam” – the repair of the world. A 17th century midrashim (a story about a story in the Bible) explains it this way. In the beginning, it says, when the creator of the universe made the world, he set in place vessels into which he poured his divine light. But the light was too brilliant for the frail vessels which, unable to contain the light, shattered all over the universe. Ever since then, the myth continues, the task of human beings has been to go about God’s universe mending and transforming the broken vessels so that they can once again be receptacles of God’s divine light. But while everyone is called to repair the world, it is only the faithful who can do it, for it they alone know the purposes of the Creator. The vision of the Creator is that the whole earth will: “Itself be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8.21). Paul tells us that creation is eagerly awaiting this new time. How we get there is the ministry of all believers, and it embraces all people, all of creation.
In a world that is fragmented, alienated and polarised, in a world caught in a spiral of destruction through violence, wars and environmental disasters the need to repair the world is greater than ever before. But it can only be done by the faithful - you, me - who listen intently to the voice of God, and obey it.
As we anticipate the Word becoming flesh and living among us, and begin a new year, I invite you to join with me in being receptacles of God’s divine light, making ‘Tikkun Olam’ our calling in 2019. Like everything else, the repair of the world takes place in tiny bite sized pieces and happens one person at a time.
Click here to read the metropolitan's full Christmas message.
You may also be interested in watching or reading other Christmas messages from around the Anglican Communion: