{"id":4924,"date":"2015-12-22T12:58:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/?p=4924"},"modified":"2015-12-22T12:58:01","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:58:01","slug":"presiding-bishop-michael-currys-christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/?p=4924","title":{"rendered":"Presiding Bishop Michael Curry&#8217;s Christmas Message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [December 22, 2015] \u201cAs the words were spoken on that night when Jesus was born, peace, good will to all people, God bless you, God keep you,\u201d  Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael Curry says in his Christmas 2015 message. <\/p>\n<p>Bishop Curry&#8217;s Christmas Message 2015<\/p>\n<p>Hello. Our original plan was for me to tape a Christmas message in front of the United Nations building in New York as a way of sending a message that this Jesus of Nazareth whom we follow came to show us the way to a different world, a world rounded in God\u2019s peace and God\u2019s justice, God\u2019s love and God\u2019s compassion.<\/p>\n<p>I recently had surgery and so we had to change those plans and so I\u2019m here in Raleigh on Capitol Square. Christ Church is here and we\u2019re filming this message here just as a way of giving me a chance to say \u201cThank you\u201d to all of you who sent cards and prayers in my recent surgery.  I\u2019m doing well and I\u2019m coming back to work. <\/p>\n<p>But I did want to say something to you.  It occurs to me that this Jesus of Nazareth really does make a difference.  And God coming into the world in the person of Jesus matters profoundly for all of us regardless of our religious tradition.<\/p>\n<p>In the park across from the United Nations, the Ralph Bunche Park, the words of the Prophet Isaiah are quoted,<\/p>\n<p>They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks<br \/>\nNation will not rise against nation<br \/>\nNeither shall they learn war any more<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s not there is another part of that passage that\u2019s in the second chapter of Isaiah, and it says,<\/p>\n<p>Come, let us go to the mountain of God,<br \/>\nThat he may show us His ways and teach us His paths<\/p>\n<p>We who follow Jesus believe that the mountain came to us when God came among us in the person of Jesus to show us the way to live, to show us the way to love, to show us the way to transform this world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends for us all.<\/p>\n<p>So, as the words were spoken on that night when Jesus was born, peace, good will to all people, God bless you, God keep you.  A blessed Advent, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all.<\/p>\n<p>The Most Rev. Michael Curry<br \/>\nPresiding Bishop and Primate<br \/>\nThe Episcopal Church<\/p>\n<p>On the web:<br \/>\nEpiscopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry Christmas 2015 message<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[December 22, 2015] \u201cAs the words were spoken on that night when Jesus was born, peace, good will to all people, God bless you, God keep you,\u201d Episcopal Church Presiding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"[December 22, 2015] \u201cAs the words were spoken on that night when Jesus was born, peace, good will to all people, God bless you, God keep you,\u201d Episcopal Church Presiding [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4926,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4924\/revisions\/4926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodshepherdny.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}