We wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas this year. May you find at the manger the hope and the love that God has waiting there for you, and may you find new and glorious ways to share that life-giving message of love and hope with the world.
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello, Bishop Diocesan & The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan
Transcript from Christmas Video
Bishop Jeff: “Greetings Beloved in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Bishop Laura and I are overjoyed to be with you, to bring you these greetings as you all prepare to come together to worship this Feast of the Incarnation, when Love came down at Christmas, when Earth met heaven and heaven met Earth.”
Bishop Laura: “Every year at this time, I think about those shepherds journeying to the manger. I imagine the world in which they lived, a world filled with fear and darkness and significant conflict, and yet somehow in their hearts, they knew by traveling to the manger what they would find there would be something new: new life, new hope, new wonder. And what they did find—they found light, they found hope, they found love born in the manger that Christmas morning.”
Bishop Jeff: “That world in which we remember seems awfully familiar to many of us today, in this world where conflict and brokenness seems to be the news of the day. And so our prayer for you is that you take some hope in those shepherds, in their longing and their expectation and what they carried with them toward the manger, that many of us are carrying that same hope, that same yearning, that same longing, and that same expectation: that when we seek him, we will, in fact, find him.”
Bishop Laura: “We wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas this year. May you find at the manger the hope and the love that God has waiting there for you, and may you find new and glorious ways to share that life-giving message of love and hope with the world.”
Bishop Jeff: “May Christ, who by his incarnation, gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with his joy and peace and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.”
Bishop Laura: “Amen.”
Bishop Jeff: “Christmas blessings, ECCT.”