Peace be with you!

We're often told that Christmas is stressful for some and lonely for others and too much of a spending frenzy for the majority. It needn't be. Christmas is also a time when we look beyond ourselves and when deep down we want only the best for those closest to us and for all who are in need in our world.

It is a time to hear again the familiar story of the birth of Jesus Christ. A time when we long for peace on earth and goodwill among all people.

But Christmas is more than simply the celebration of the birth of a baby. The story takes us beyond the glitter and the tinsel and the lights to something much deeper.

Most of us experience a sense of awe and wonder when we stand at the foot of a cradle and gaze on a newly born baby. As we see the crib scenes in the centres of our cities, towns and villages, we are moved again by the memory of that experience. And as we feel it, we are invited to look beyond the baby, to catch a glimpse of God whose gift is hope; the hope of peace and goodwill, of beauty and love. We are invited to look beyond what we see, however bleak it might seem, to discover signs of goodness and beauty, of hope, of joy wherever people are trying to do their best.

The Christmas story tells us about people trying to do their best in a pretty bleak situation - a couple forced to go to another town for a census, a man doing his best for the woman to whom he was engaged and who was heavily pregnant, but not by him, and an inn keeper trying to do his best for the couple when all the accommodation in town was taken. And, in this very human drama, the birth of a baby.

Then there is the unexpected invitation to the shepherds, an invitation to us all, to go and see in the new-born child the signals of hope for all the earth - to see love and joy and goodness and beauty, the signs of God's presence on earth and the gift of hope for peace and goodwill among all people.

At times it is hard not to feel down-hearted when our best does not seem good enough: when things go wrong with our relationships despite our best intentions; when tragedy hits families or communities both near and far; when so much of our news is about violence, destroying people and our environment.

Christmas is a time for looking beyond these to see goodness and beauty in those around us; to look at tragedy and see the stories of kindness and compassion that carry with them the hope of life beyond the darkness; to look at the violence and see the efforts made to change these patterns and see in them signals of hope for a safer world; to look at our environment and see the beauty that is there and to hear the call for green alternatives as signals of hope for our planet.

When we accept the invitation to look beyond the surface, we become open to signals of hope for ourselves, our families and our world. This is part of God's gift that is celebrated at Christmas but which does not stop there. God invites us to look beyond.

May we all share God's gift of love and hope this Christmas and in the year that lies ahead.


Signed by:
His Eminence Keith Patrick Cardinal O' Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh
Right Rev Sheilagh M Kesting, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Most Rev Idris Jones, Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Rev Lily Twist, Chair of the Methodist Synod in Scotland
Pamala McDougall, Clerk, General Meeting for Scotland, The Religious Society of Friends
Major Robert McIntyre, Scotland Secretariat, The Salvation Army
Rev David Cartledge, Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland
Rev John Humphreys, Moderator, United Reformed Church Synod of Scotland
Brother Stephen Smyth, General Secretary, Action of Churches Together in Scotland