Religious leaders tell: how to put the spirit back into Christmas

Ebony, Dec, 2003

Bishop John R. Bryant President, General Board, AME Church

THIS year, we should return to the original meaning of Christmas and see this as a time when we look at what we have received from God--the gift of a Savior who is Jesus Christ, the gift of family life, the gift of loved ones, the gift of health and strength. I thank God for my wife, the Rev. Cecelia Williams Bryant. One Christmas about 16 or 17 years ago, she said that if there was one thing our children didn't need, it was another middle-class Christmas. So she and our son and daughter, Jamal and Thema, went to Haiti for Christmas. She gathered gifts from the people in our church and went to Haiti to distribute the gifts. My wife said she knew she had done the right thing when, after passing out all of the gifts, my son took off his earphones and gave his Walkman to another kid at the airport in Haiti. Our children came back with a greater sense of how blessed they were, and a deeper understanding of the global reality--that there are people in the world who aren't thinking about rooms full of gifts. The giving of gifts is not a bad thing. For several years I have adopted a family each Christmas, sharing gifts with people who are not expecting to receive. When I see their joy and happiness over receiving something, I receive happiness from it. So those of us who have been blessed should really make an effort to share with others who don't have as much. People should think of creative ways that they can give to their families, their friends and the needy of the world.

From my family to yours, I pray that the joy of this season will fill your hearts and your homes.

The Rev. Susan D. Johnson Cook

Pastor of Bronx Christian Fellowship Church and first female president of the 10,000-member Hampton University Minister's Conference, the largest African-American interdenominational clergy gathering in the world

CHRISTMAS is a very special time of year and one of my favorite times. First and foremost, it is a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we "live, move and have our very being" This year will be most significant as we look at the world in so much chaos as we lift up a Savior who offers hope, peace, joy and deliverance.

I especially care about the senior citizens and elders of our community and hope and pray that we turn much attention to them for this time of year, although joyful and plentiful for many, can be depressing and lonely for many who live alone.

But in the midst of it all, I am also a wife and mother and we truly enjoy the family time of the holidays together. My husband, Ron, is the specialist in decorations and turns our home into a warm winter wonderland, and he also leads us in family prayers during this season. Our two sons, ages 8 & 11, enjoy the services at church as well as the exchange of gifts among family and friends. We especially are blessed when the eldest members of our "village" are able to be among us. We honor them and serve them for as many days as they are able to stay with us in our home. It is our way of giving thanks and showing appreciation for the many years they blessed our lives and poured into us.

In our church family, we have a community-wide celebration and we focus on the children since Jesus came as a young child. May the materialism of the season never outweigh the manger. We purchase the gifts, but God sent his greatest gift His son. Jesus is the reason for the season. May we be wise men and women this holiday season and offer our gifts to the Lord.

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory

Bishop of Belleville, III. President, United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops

CHRISTMAS always reminds me that we are celebrating the birth of a poor baby, unnoticed at the time, now the pivotal moment of human history. That little baby was completely defenseless but for the protection of a blessed mother and her holy spouse. We need to return to that crib more often--for it reminds us that despite our success and bluster, each of us is a helpless child, utterly dependent on a heavenly Father who saves us from the world, and sometimes from ourselves.

Have you ever knelt before a manger and asked a little child for his or her favorite Christmas character? It's seldom the wealthy magi, or the towering angels, or even the hovering shepherds. It's usually the baby sheep, or the little donkey, or "the little Lord Jesus, asleep in the hay"

Christmas tells us that it is not our great accomplishments and noble deeds that merit the gift of the holy child. It is the great good news of Christmas that it is precisely when I am weeping, abandoned or afraid, that God transforms my broken heart into a crib, where his only Son is born anew. Our littleness cannot overcome God's strength. Our selfishness will not defeat God's boundless love. Our foolishness will never unweave God's careful plan.

How do we celebrate such a gift? By returning often to the crib. By nurturing and protecting every child, even the tiniest and yet unborn child in the womb. By living deep the mystery of a baby whose weakness is our strength, whose dying is our life, and in whose birth a tired and shadowed world finds a reason to live.