Warrnambool Church leaders' Christmas messages focus on the pandemic

"Who would have thought that Christmas 2021 we'd still be in the midst of a pandemic," Warrnambool's Anglican Church rector Father Scott Lowrey said.

"And all that means in our own sense of vulnerability - both the anxieties of the individual and the community.

"That's very real and we need to acknowledge that.

"We're really grateful that such a high rate of people are vaccinated and getting their boosters."

Father Lowrey said this Christmas people also yearned for personal contact.

"Humanity is a race that thrives in the relationships with each other," he said.

"Whether you're a person of faith or not, it's all about family and being together," he said. "Once again, being together but in the midst of a pandemic."

Father Lowery said Christ as a child was one with being with us.

"God fulfills for us the sense that he wants us to be in relationships, not just with each other, but to have God with us," he said.

"God speaks to us, and Jesus speaks to us in our vulnerability and anxiety, God speaks that word of peace."

Warrnambool's Uniting Church Reverend Geoff Barker said that even after 2000 years Jesus influenced others by steering them towards kindness, inclusion and seeing the world as one community.

"He wasn't about ego or power, and couldn't be bought off to sell a product," Reverend Barker said.

"As Christians we'd call him the Son of God, but the least anyone could call him is the world's best Influencer for good."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Warrnambool Presbyterian Pastor Ben Johnson said the Presbyterian Church was celebrating Christmas with the story of Jesus' humility and generosity and how it conquered the power and ambition of Caesar.

His message to the community was "in the time of weariness and a sense of hopelessness, that there can be purpose, joy and peace in knowing Christ".

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