CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

FROM

ARCHBISHOP JUSTICE OFEI AKROFI

PRIMATE OF CHURCH OF THE PROVINCE OF WEST AFRICA (ANGLICAN)

For a Church Leader whose seat is Accra, Ghana, Christmas 2007 is special and has an edge on most other Christmases, although the essential message is the same i.e. the good news (gospel) of God’s wish for PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL TO ALL.

2007 is the Jubilee year of Ghana’s Independence; Ghana is 50 years old.  It has been a time of joyful celebration as well as taking stock of our fifty years of weaknesses and strengths, wasted opportunities as well as successes and achievements, senselessness and foolishness as well as moments of sanity and lucidity – a reminder that human existence is a story of contradictions and paradoxes.

This story of contradictions and paradoxes in a way is an expression of the Christian core message of the cross which is at once the emblem of ignominy, shame and a thing of glory. It is when we reflect on, have the eye of faith and learn to rely on the stupendous Grace of God that seeming rot and hopelessness may be turned into goodness.  Under God’s guiding hand, we never give up.

Similarly, Christmas illustrates God’s way of dealing with the world in seeming contradictions: The child in swaddling clothes and in hay stack was to be God’s instrument of salvation of the world;  the child born in an animal stable and not in a palace of the world was to be “the Saviour in whom the hopes and fears of all the years are met”.

The Jesus who encountered ignominy, hostility and injustice and yet turned his back to the smiters was to become the Prince of Peace.  The Jesus from backwater Bethlehem/Nazareth was to become the fountain and origin of perhaps the most dynamic religion in the world, which has influenced world culture most profoundly.

It is not so much a matter and story of numbers; it is a dynamic and quality of life and contribution.

Thus, in writing a Christmas message against the foregoing background, allow me to urge you to face the contradictions of life so familiar to you and, more importantly, to focus on the bright side of the contradictions and ironies of life. With faith in ourselves and in the Creator of the World who holds the world in his palm of the hand, we can go ahead into the future, assured of success.

Second, we have been struck by the manifestation of unity and pride which the Independence Jubilee like the World Cup series induced in the republic of Ghana, so that peoples of every tribe and tongue and gender as well as religions, inspite of the loud “prophets” of doom, tribalism etc., joined hands to salute Mother Ghana.

The lesson is clear: at this time of tidings of great joy in this Jubilee year, let us resolve and redouble our efforts to become one people of God, co-tenants of the one world God created, with a common destiny to ensure that the world which God created good remains good. Let us endeavour not to exclude or marginalize any other.  Let us build on the sense of unity and pride, especially in the coming year which will evidence the cut and thrust of politics in the Election of 2008.

Ø     My prayer for all of us is that we may answer God’s call to His creation to pursue Peace and Justice, truth and compassion, peace and reconciliation.

Ø     I prayerfully wish you a blessed Christmas and a blissful 2008.

Ø     As we do that, let us thank God for the glimmers of hope, peace and justice.

Ø        Undermining the advance to the utopia of peace is the much talked of Corruption at all levels.  May 2008 be a year of determined and honest crusade on corruption at all levels, so as to clear the road to the desired peace.

Christmas and New Year come with hope, determination and resolution.  So let us proceed with hope, resolution and determination.

Afi –oo- afi

Afrihyia Pa.  Afi Nko mbotu yen