[Christmas Messages 1985]
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/official6875
- Date
- 1985 December 12
- Source
- Anglican News Service
- Type
- Press Release
- Text of motion
- Toronto - Enclosed are the Christmas Messages of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Robert Runcie, and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Most Rev. Edward W. Scott.
- If you are wondering about the signature on Archbishop Runcie's message, it is his official signature "Robert Cantuar." Cantuar is the ancient Latin name of his diocese of Canterbury.
- Along with these messages may I include my own personal best wishes for the holiday season and for health and satisfaction in your work in the new year. Thank you very much for your co-operation in 1985 and please feel free to get in touch at any time if I can be of assistance to you in 1986.
- [signature]
- The Rev. Richard J. Berryman
- Media Officer
- Notes
- The Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Message 1985
- "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."
- The heart of the message of Christmas is this - the good news of God's entering our world in the birth of Jesus to share our lives, our suffering, even our death. And in so identifying with us, with our trials and tribulations, he turns them around, bringing good out of evil, compassion out of cruelty, hope out of horror. Let us hold on to this message as we look ahead, and as we remember a trying and troubled year for many parts of our Anglican family.
- Throughout 1985 we have experienced famine in the Sudan and Ethiopia; continued conflict in Central America and the Middle East; revelation of atrocities in Uganda; riots on the streets of English cities; oppression and violence in South Africa; a devastating earthquake in Mexico City; communal conflict and refugees in Southeast Asia.
- Perhaps South Africa has been most on our minds. Archbishop Philip Russell has led the Church there in a gentle but firm manner, making it clear that the Church can never support a system which treats men and women as less than human because of the colour of their skin.
- The prophetic witness of Bishop Desmond Tutu has caught the attention and warmed the hearts of many. His is a ministry characterised by a powerful mixture of courage, realism and humility. He knows his needs of others: he cannot achieve lasting peace and goodwill in South Africa alone. He must maintain the support of his own people, and he must win the support of the white population and the government. He needs the practical sympathy of the international community and of the Church. I am regularly in touch with him as are many others of you throughout the Anglican family. We pray that his moderate voice is not silenced.
- In South Africa, Uganda, Nicaragua, Argentina, Ireland, Britain, Mexico, Jordan and Sri Lanka we are learning in the Communion that when one member suffers, we all suffer. And we are learning to express our common sympathy in ways which build up the common good.
- Let us pray this Christmas that our common life and witness may bear glory to God int he highest, build peace on earth, and bear good will towards all.
- [signed] Robert Cantuar
- December 1985
- A Christmas Message to the People of Canada from the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
- At Christmas every year I am struck by the profound simplicity of the revelation contained in the all too familiar song of the angels, that God wills good for his people and calls people to will good for each other.
- As you may have seen in the media recently, I have accepted new responsibility to be the Canadian appointee to the Commonwealth Commission on Southern Africa. Part of my reason for doing that is that I see the Commission as a concrete move to achieve ways and means for people who find themselves trapped in tragic circumstances to will good to and for each other. In that, I am doing, on an international scale, no more than we all should be endeavouring to do not only at Christmas, but throughout every day of our lives at the personal level.
- I wish two things for the people of my country this Christmastide. First that we may recover the sense that we live out the ordinariness of our daily lives in the midst of eternity. That what we do each day has eternal value. That seems so simple, but is so profound. If we receive that gift, my second wish will follow.
- It is that that profound truth will set each of us free, empower us to will good and to reach in love to each other. As two lines of a poem I read recently say, "Having glimpsed some magnificent overpowering truth, Makes me doubt the finality of anything less."
- The overpowering truth that we see in the Birth in the manger, that God will us good and calls us to will good for each other should cause us to doubt the finality of the pride of race, the greed of power, the fear of those who are different, and the pessimism that this is a God-forsaken world.
- God has not foresaken this world. Christmas tells us he is immersed in its human life and history. We go out day by day to meet him in it. That is our reason for hope in the face of all the hopelessness of our weary world.
- Good will to you all and hope fill your hearts and homes this Christmas.
- Yours faithfully,
- [signed]
- Edward Scott
- Archbishop
- Subjects
- Christmas - Anglican Church of Canada
- Christmas - Anglican Communion
- Christmas - Church of England
- Runcie, Robert A.K. (Robert Alexander Kennedy), 1921-2000
- Scott, Edward W. (Edward Walter), 1919-2004
- South Africa - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- South Africa - Religious aspects - Anglican Communion
- Tutu, Desmond M. (Desmond Mpilo), 1931-2021
- Apartheid - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada
- Apartheid - Religious aspects - Anglican Communion