A Christmas greeting from the LWF President, December 2012
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ.
Christmas greetings to you in the seven regions of the LWF from Jerusalem, the city of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Although long known as the city of peace, Jerusalem has been afflicted with centuries of conflict. Today, the people of Jerusalem join in the laments of too many other places torn by strife.
The hope of Christmas is the same now as it was over two thousand years ago: that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s own self. Reconciliation was present in that humble cave in Bethlehem, and reconciliation is God’s message and gift to us today. As Isaiah writes,
For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm
and a shade from the heat. (Isaiah 25:4 NRSV)
As a global communion, we know well the human costs of disasters, conflicts, and wars. The LWF was founded in 1947 to respond to the needs of refugees in Europe after the Second World War. Among our many forms of shared ministry, we have retained a focus on accompanying refugees.
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