Methodist Bishop Leader Emphasizes Christ the Savior in Christmas Message
Amid wishes for a merry Christmas, Bishop Emilio de Carvalho of Luanda, Angola, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said such sentiments seem odd in the world’s trouble spots.
“Let us not fool one another with superficial messages of Christmas that only touch the surface of human life,” he said, citing pains of war and uncertainty in Angola, Zaire, Liberia and Yugoslavia.
He said, “For many of us who have lived ‘on the spot,’ Christmas means that the Savior . . . came to identify himself with those who suffer, to make them wish for a new life. . . .”
“It is the knowledge of a redeeming Christ, which makes men and women rejoice and feel happy. Have, then, a merry Christmas.”
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