HOPE AND fortitude in difficult economic times is a common theme among the Christmas messages from the leaders of the four main Christian churches in Ireland.
Hope in Challenging Times – a Reflection for Christmas 2011 is the title of the message issued by the Catholic bishops.
They said the church was “conscious of the many homes across Ireland where pressures on family life have never been greater because of worries about debt, financial insecurity, unemployment and heavy workloads just to make ends meet”.
The message said organisations such as Accord had reported significant increases in the number of couples coming to them for help “to avail of the safe and confidential space”. The bishops also said recent years in the church had been “especially difficult”.
“We are deeply sorry that so many people have felt hurt, betrayed and shaken in their faith. This is especially true for the victims of child abuse in the church, for whom no expression of regret could ever suffice.”
The president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Ian D Henderson, said during the boom years that “it seemed that anything we wanted we could have, whether we could afford it or not.
“Now, with the economic downturn, we have all had to grow up a little, especially in our spending habits, and perhaps in the process reduce the level of selfishness in our thinking,” he said.
The Rev Henderson asked was it not now a time “to ask ourselves what do we need – really need?”
The Most Rev Richard Clarke, president of the Irish Council of Anglican Churches, said there was a “communal anxiety and apprehensiveness that few of us can recall since the very worst of the violence in Northern Ireland almost a generation ago”.
He compared the economic “quicksand” of today with that of the 1930s, which he said had given rise to “hideous and satanic results, as false gods and demonic ideologies flowered in more than one country”.
The Christmas message from the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rt Rev Dr Ivan Patterson, encouraged Christians to “discover what’s so great about Jesus this Christmas”.
“The word of God has become flesh and lives among us full of grace and truth,” he said.