Part 1.

Hanukkah and Christmas Wishes

On Monday the 22nd, Hanukkah ended and yesterday the Menorah and the Hanukkah greeting on the little table in our apartment lobby was being prepared for safe storage.  On the other side of the lobby stood a Christmas tree seasonally decorated.  A "Merry Christmas" greeting  could not be missed.

In our Ottawa apartment building, The Barclay, there is welcome diversity - about 95 households live here.   We know there are other Christians celebrating the birth of Jesus; and we know observing Jews often mark hall doorframes with a mezuzah containing a scroll with scriptural verses.  Whether Muslim make their home here is not verified but the diversity in our population makes it easy to assume it.   And there are doubtless residents who identify with other religions and no organized religion at all.   The Barclay is a remarkably peaceful place and community - a model of healthy diversity.

I like to think that the Creator intended diversity and put it to the global human family to live in peace with one another.   Almost every religion that is worth observing has something like the Golden Rule - look at the similar message of various global religions on the poster above.  [poster credit:  Scarboro Missions Toronto)

So with the visual symbols in our apartment lobby, let me wish for the Creator's entire human family all the blessings of joy, love, abundance, prosperity, wholeness and health,  truth and the Shalom/Salaam/Peace/Mir/Friede/Paix the  Creator intends in this holy season and for the New Year ahead of us.    I hope Jewish friends celebrated a wonderful Hanukkah and that Christian family and friends have a Merry Christmas.   

I pray that the transcendent Spirit who endows each and all with the seeds of goodness and health may awaken in us all a fervent desire and vibrant energy for that peace which passes all understanding, all rationalizations, all hatreds, all vengeance, all injustice, all 'getting even', all criminal behaviour.....

That does, I comprehend, defy probability and maybe even possibility.   But unless humans nurture those seeds of goodness and goodwill we will descend into "Sloughs of Despond" and swamps of narcissistic self-interest, which already are all too well represented  in our world.   Global leaders like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, and other miniature versions lust for imperial and personal power, while gun-toting murderers and demonizing others seek to diminish the sisters and brothers in the global family..

As for me, I believe in community which does and will help me hold onto the faith and conviction that "doing to others what I want for me" is the way to truth and love.   I will continue to rage and resist when the powerful and wealthy (people and nations) seek to rob and massacre the weakest and poorest of the family, to take their lands and homes, to actively destroy the international framework of laws and conventions that build a peaceable world.  Not because I hate them, but because their self-love (narcissism)  demeans their own and others' human spirit.  They undermine the well-being of God's family and destroy humanity.   Their evil is an affront to the Holy One in whose image they were created.

I will continue to support organizations and communities that advocate and care - for people, for the environment, for self-determination, for just sharing the wealth of Creation, for honouring the Creator, for helping "strangers" and "enemies" learn to co-exist and adopt to ways of justice..   

For me, all  of that and more is wrapped into the  "Merry Christmas" wish rooted  in the story  of Luke's Gospel chapters 1 & 2 and beyond, and, I trust, it is part of the Jewish greeting for a Happy Hanukkah and the lighting of the Menorah candles.   It is in every prayer for just Peace:

Creator, let it be so for your entire human family! and for your Creation groaning for new beginnings.  AMEN

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Part 2:   I commend this urgent greeting and truthful witness to your prayerful attention.   Harry

Christmas Message — 2025 

from the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [Greek: martyrōn], let us also lay

aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is

set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith . . . (Hebrews 12:1–2a)

During these continuing times of hardship and strife throughout our region, We, the Patriarchs and

Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, remain resolute in proclaiming and affirming to both our

communities and the faithful around the world the message of hope revealed in Christ’s Incarnation and Holy Nativity in Bethlehem more than two millennia ago.

For in similarly difficult times, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to shepherds of that region,

beseeching them to cast aside their fears. “For behold,” said the angel, “I bring you good news of a

great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who

is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10).

It was in kneeling before the manger in that sacred cave that the shepherds first witnessed God’s

gracious gift of love. They beheld “Immanuel,” “God-with-us” (Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 7:14)—a divine

Savior who “emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Philippians

2:7).

In his great compassion for us, the Almighty deigned to take on our flesh and blood: to live among us

and feel our pain; to later preach a message of repentance and God’s redemption for all people; and to

serve the downtrodden and afflicted before finally offering up his life on our behalf, that we might be

raised with him to new life through faith in God’s gracious act of love (Romans 6:4; Ephesians 2:6).

While this year we rejoice that a ceasefire has allowed many of our communities to more publicly

celebrate the joys of Christmas, we nevertheless pay heed to the Prophet Jeremiah’s warning against

those saying “‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). For we are fully aware that,

despite a declared cessation of hostilities, hundreds have continued to be killed or suffer grievous injury.  Many more have experienced violent assaults against themselves, their properties, and their freedoms— not only in the Holy Land, but also in neighboring countries.

We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, following in the example of our Lord in

His Incarnation, continue to stand in solidarity with all those who are suffering and downcast, and we

call upon Christians and others of goodwill around the world to persevere in praying and advocating

for a true and just peace in the homeland of our Lord’s birth—and, indeed, throughout the earth.

For those facing these afflictions, we recall from the Epistle to the Hebrews how many of the faithful

over the centuries stood firm in faith through extreme hardships (Hebrews 11) and how Christ himself

serves as the wellspring of our devotion to God (Hebrews 12:1–2a, above).

We therefore encourage you to look to Him for your spiritual strength, even as the larger Body of Christ seeks to relieve your suffering and to strengthen you in your resolve to persevere in the Lord’s work.

It is with these many sentiments that we extend our Christmas greetings to our congregations and to

Christians around the world, wishing you and your loved ones the joy and peace that comes from

encountering the boundless love of God made more fully manifest in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ

in Bethlehem.

—The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem