New Year messages
New Year has become an occasion for denominational church leaders to convey a message to their followers. However, sad to say, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ rarely ranks high on the scale of popular themes.
This year in his New Year message the Archbishop of Canterbury talked about the importance of protecting the environment. The Archbishop followed the example of the Queen in her Christmas Day speech to the nation and placed his message on the file-sharing web site YouTube, no doubt hoping to become more accessible to a non-church-going audience.
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI described family values as the foundation of world peace. ‘The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace’, the pope told worshippers, ‘whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community’.
Meanwhile the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland spoke of her wishes for a world ‘transformed’ by love and hope. The Right Reverend Sheilagh Kesting wanted ‘selfish ambition’ cast aside.
