After all good preparations for Christmas in the PCC – Hand in hand Community
(see the previous AC), we are now right before this wonderful celebration, it is special every year again. It will be celebrated all over the world, no matter how turbulent the world around us might be.
Every year again we hear in churches about the angel’s choir singing “Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men” on Christmas night and every year again we do hope that peace finally comes closer ……. but also in 2023 it wasn’t like that.
You know all about it and can watch it every day on your tv: so many places without peace, so much suffering, abuse of power, poverty, exploitation of men and women and heartbreaking great sadness ….., it is beyond anything we can comprehend.
Knowing this sad background we are nevertheless preparing ourselves for celebrating Christmas also this year. We do so in conviction, to keep our hope alive and to continue believing in a better and New World that will one day come.
That will be a world where not evil but love will have the last word, where the good forces will beat the evil ones, where the vision of the lion and the lamb peacefully lying side by side will become a reality.
What a great vision that is, as it was in Rev. Martin Luther King’s words: “I have a dream…….”.
In our small Community there are also dreams, though small.
Nathan by example dreams of Clicks, Luke dreams to become a musician, Blessing and Tettey are dreaming of continuous playing and Daniel Coffee and Yaw Balloon have dreams of the warmth of friendship.
Other children mainly dream of nice party’s with lots of music, dance and delicious food and it will definitely be like that during our Christmas programme. Maybe the very essence of Christmas is not having delicious food and drinks, or receiving nice presents, but let’s be fair, also the Wise Men from the East came with presents to the stable of Bethlehem. And surely Joseph took good care of Mary by giving her nutritious food to eat, no doubt for that.
Without doubt Christmas in our Community is the undisputed highlight of the year, the worries of the great outside world are far from here.
Together we will listen to the ancient words of the Christmas story and we will experience the joy about the birth of Christ, the Son of Man.
And all of us fully enjoy the Christmas play on Boxing Day!
It will be as if we ourselves can see the shining of the Christmas star and for a moment can stand in between the shepherds near the stable, to have the privilege of seeing the child Jesus, the Light of the World.
We believe that, together with all residents of our Community, we can keep dreaming about the New World that once will be, a world where there will be no more pain and sorrow, a world where His Peace will reign.
We wish you a Merry Christmas an a Happy New Year and hope that your and our dream of a Peace that passes all understanding may soon become true.
Amen.