CalChurches 
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All*
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I am a Christmas nut. I love everything about it from the deepest meaning of the day to the cheesy decorations in the stores. I love Christmas music, especially antique carols but swoon when I hear Nat King Cole sing the Christmas Song. I watch every old Christmas-themed movie, I get Advent calendars, I bake, cook, and stuff the house with goodies to share with family and friends. Only thing that saves me from being one of those people with 13,000,000 watts of outdoor lights is a lack of time and money. My neighbors bless my inaction.
The main reason I love Christmas is the to-the-core sense of peace and hope. Ever since I was a child, the hush of Christmas Eve, the sense of waiting and wondering, has been palpable. Oh sure for Santa, but always more — the promise of good, a presence, a wonder. Christmas was always about reflection on the meaning of a baby and how his birth is made manifest as the in-gathering of friends, of sharing, of giving to others, of caring about them, and the joy of togetherness. It is peace-in-action, hope made real.
This nation has gone through dozens of really horrible times before. Even in times of war, hardship, and want, we’ve still found ways to find joy in the promise of Christmas. It is the most pure expression of our values, a baby born to a poor mother in rude circumstances yet the guidestar for so much of humankind. Hope. Promise. A call to be the best we can be.
In this season of Advent and Christmas, we face anger and discontent throughout the nation. We don’t have a civil war, but we certainly have a civility war, and there is even occasional violence attached to that discontent. Much of what we have worked for, what we accomplished will be challenged in the coming months and years as those with very different ideas about America take the reins of authority. We have anger and fear at this development — what will it mean to us? What are the effects to those in need, communities of color, women, and all our loved ones and neighbors who may be immigrants, Muslims, same-sex couples?
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This Advent, far more than any we have seen in years, we are challenged to find the peace and hope of Christmas.
We at the Council of Churches are as challenged as any of you to keep the promise of what we are called to do. CCC has strong values about what we see as Christ’s teachings on right and wrong. We work to bring thoughtful discernment to issues that face us all in the secular world and struggle to filter our commitments to democracy through the prism of our faith values. Of course we want to be good at this work — and we fight the tendency to get angry, hostile, disrespectful of those who do not agree with us. And we hear from them! Oh boy, do we hear from them!
So we make this commitment to you: through the storm and strife of our national and state political discourse, we will continue to strive to uphold the meaning of Christmas year around.
We will try to provide insight, discernment, and analysis of our big issues with an eye to how we make them into positive affirmations not just cranky opposition. We will also, as have done around earlier crises, strive to be a foundation for peace and kindness as we educate our members on issues and mediate differences. CCC is needed more than ever to be a central part of loving Christianity, so please help us continue this role.
This holiday season, please consider a gift to help us to continue to fund our dedication to justice and equality for all.
Please support our work! You can donate through PayPal, Network for Good, or print out a form here.
Our work may sometimes be limited by resources, but our vision and energy for you is not. God created a universe of abundance and we know that in God’s universe, our success is far more about what we can imagine than what we know. Your past support has helped us make a big difference! We ask you to join us in imagining the world as God sees it. Please give generously out of the abundance with which you have been blessed.
Thank you in advance for your generosity and your partnership. Your investment in our mission and dedication will mean so much to the human community that we serve. We wish you a season of joy and blessing.
With vision and hope,
Elizabeth “Libby” Sholes
Director of Public Policy
* All means ALL — no exceptions
Please support our work! You can donate through PayPal, Network for Good, or print out a form here
The California Council of Churches is committed to being a good steward and serving faith communities to pursue justice, equity and fairness for all God’s children. If our work stirs your passion, please consider leaving a Legacy gift as you are making your estate plans. Please call the Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser at 916-488-7300 or email rick@calchurches.org.
A growing number of supporters are making monthly contributions by filling out the right-hand portion of the enclosed reply card. Can you afford to pledge $10 to $25 per month to keep us strong and effective throughout the year?
Activists Needed!!!!
California Church IMPACT and the California Council of Churches need you and your friends to become members. Your support allows us to continue and to expand our important work. Help us expand our activist base in every legislative district to continue and increase the effectiveness of our efforts to work to provide updates, training, and resources to help people of faith to be as effective and articulate advocates as possible. It is essential to our mission to be the advocacy voice for justice for our member denominations. Please send us the names and email addresses of activists in your community or share this letter with them and ask them to visit churchimpact.org/take-action.html
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The California Council of Churches is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, EIN 94-2780260. Contributions are tax deductible
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