Newsbreak - Highlighting Stories in our town

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Highlighting News Stories for Our Town for the week of December 22, 2003

Newsbreak for Walpole
The Week – Dec. 22
The Year – 2003

The Holiday Season

Everywhere we go, folks greet each other with the popular expression: have a great Holiday or ‘Happy Holidays’.

Behind this greeting and the warmth and joy we offer to each other, we find deep roots of spirituality and faith that are the foundation for this greeting.

Perhaps we should return to a more specific greeting. We can identify our faith for others without any disrespect to the contrasting faith or culture of our friends and neighbors. We can acknowledge the faith of another without denying our own.

Let’s look.

1. On December 25th, the reality is that millions of Christians will seek out a church service to celebrate and/or find a note of reconciliation with others and their God. Thus begins, for the Church a two-week season of celebration for the coming of Christ into the world.
2. During the last week of December, while Christians celebrate their season, Jews participate in their ‘season of light’ – the eight-day celebration of Chanukah. This season of light is a time of renewal and joy.
3. For Muslims, it is but a short time ago that their season of Ramadan came to a close – a month long time for fast and prayer.
4. The secular season of winter is the time for the spiritually based seasons of prayer and reconciliation and faith based worship.

As we greet each other and exchange gifts and send cards and slow our ordinary pace to be at peace with one another, let us be ever mindful of the basis for our peace.

…….

Peace to one and all in this holiday season as we celebrate our separate Holy Days.