Message from the Executive Director

Isaiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,"

Several days before the Newtown massacre I had chosen the verse above to be the basis of this week reflection.  The brief thoughts I share here where on my mind before this tragedy happened.

God gave the most special gift to the human family in the birth of the Child from Bethlehem.  We eagerly wait every year for the celebrations of his birth. We cannot over emphasize the importance of his birth and what it means to humanity. The night when he was born many other children were born. Most of them were born into a hostile world, a world of, poverty, lack of access to education, violence, racial and ethnic divisions, and political turmoil.

More than two thousand years latter millions of children continue to be born every day under similar circumstances, even in the richest country in the world.

As Christians, we believe the child from Bethlehem is the Hope of the world.

The Church, which is the immediate family of Jesus, is called to offer this hope to the world. Even more than just proclaiming that hope, the Church must live or demonstrate to the world how does hope looks like.

Christian Churches Together offers the churches an opportunity to work at building and strengthening relationships. Our country has waited for too long for the churches to get their act together and show how to live as a reconciled family. Is the gospel powerful enough to create real and tangible reconciliation in our world? Is it powerful enough to reconcile Christians to each other?

Future generations will judge the Church by how effective the church was in demonstrating the transformative power of the gospel in human relations. In Christian Churches Together we have already experienced this reconciling power at work. The truth is that what we have experience so far only scratches the surface of the task. 

For the sake of future generations, we must continue to build stronger ties between our Christian traditions and communions. We must stop avoiding other members of the Christian family. We must find ways to address together the sins and evils of society. How can we continue to be part of the spirit of hatred and alienation present in our world?

Christ is the hope of the world! He was born to reconcile us to God and to each other. The Church of Christ must be a beacon of hope, grace, love and reconciliation in the world!

As our Orthodox sisters and brothers say: "Christ is Born!", and they answer "Glorify Him!"

Rev. Carlos L. Malavé