2015 Christmas Day Messages

Dec 25, 2015 News

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Today Christmas is celebrated across the world. Best wishes are extend to all Guyana, and we at Kaieteur News hope for Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Guyanese and their families.
Below are some messages from various organisations on the occasion of Christmas 2015.

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President David Granger

Christians all over Guyana celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ today. Jesus’s humble birth in a manger over two thousand years ago fulfilled God’s exalted promise recorded in the Holy Bible of peace on earth and good will toward men.
Jesus’s glorious work in an obscure country, with a small band of disciples, a long time ago brought renewed hope to humanity and transformed the world. The flame of hope has been relit in Guyana this year. It is written in the Holy Bible, “… old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” Hope is alive again in our country. This hope comes with the promise of tangible and lasting change for a better life for all of our people.
Christmas is a time to rejoice in Jesus Christ’s miraculous birth and his marvelous message of hope. It is also a time to rekindle the Guyanese spirit of goodwill and to be grateful for the service and sacrifice of others. We join other Guyanese to make Christmas this year a day of “good tidings of great joy.”
Christians – through thought, word and work – exemplify Christ’s message of mercy and compassion. They make Christmas a special, sacred season. Guyanese of all religions have also been inspired by the season’s spirit of charity and sense of social responsibility. Ordinary people everywhere reach out with compassion and generosity to help their brothers and sisters in need.
Christmas this year, provides an opportunity to call on everyone to join in improving the lives of others; in bridging the gaps that keep our people apart; in reducing inequality; in ensuring a safe and secure country; in delivering the good life for all, including the needy, the sick, the infirm, the lonely and the forgotten that we especially remember and embrace.
We call to mind today our children, the aged, the poor and other vulnerable citizens. We remember our soldiers and servicemen who are spending time away from home, on our borders and in far-flung regions, separated from their families. We recognise the service of our technicians, nurses and other workers who maintain our public utilities and public health services so that others could be safe and comfortable.
May all Guyana find comfort in the message of Christmas, a message that offers hope and the promise of a better future! A Blessed Christmas to all!

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LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of all people as fellow travellers on life’s path, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
Charles Dickens once penned this message and it is one that rings true across our nation at this time.
To all Guyanese celebrating Christmas, I extend season’s greetings for a joyous holiday and best wishes for love, peace, prosperity and good health from myself and the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Members of Parliament (MPs).
As day set aside to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, it has become a signal of hope, given the lessons left behind – messages of compassion, peace, charity and goodwill – principles that transcend Christianity, cutting across religion, creed, culture and ethnicity.
At this time, Guyanese can reflect on these principles, as well as the fact that we have been through much as a people – moments of joy, sadness and struggle.
However, we must also acknowledge the fact that Christmas inspires hope, which extends beyond our circumstances. As such, we can use this time to renew our sense of commitment as we look forward to the year and all we hope to achieve together.
May the spirit of holidays, which brightens this time of year for all Guyanese, guide us through 2016, as Christmas is for more than one day.

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PEOPLE’S NATIONAL CONGRESS REFORM (PNCR)

The miraculous birth of Jesus Christ – celebrated by most Christians on the 25th December – is recorded in the Gospel according to St Luke as heralding an era of “peace on earth and good will toward men.”
Jesus’ humble birth took place in a common manger in a tiny town in an obscure country. He was able, nevertheless, with a small band of disciples, to preach a gospel that transformed the world in a most fundamental way and created a remarkable Christian civilization of which we are all heirs.
The Christian spirit of charity continues to inspire Guyanese of all religions. Ordinary people everywhere reach out with compassion and generosity to help their brothers and sisters in distress.
We call to mind the plight of the aged, the poor and other vulnerable citizens. We remember our servicemen and soldiers who will spend this joyous festival separated from their families at sea and on our far-flung frontiers.
Christmas has become more than a religious festival when we rejoice in Jesus’ miraculous birth and his marvelous message to mankind. It has become an occasion to rekindle the Guyanese spirit of goodwill and to be grateful for the service and sacrifice of others.

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GUYANA PUBLIC SERVICE UNION

What makes Christmas special for us as Guyanese is the spirit of goodwill that characterizes of its celebration. If the season is known to be of particular significance to people of the Christian faith, for us as Guyanese it cuts across religion, race, ethnicity, creed and culture.
Christmas is, indeed, the season of love, of sharing and of festivities. The Carols proclaim “joy to the world,” “Peace on Earth” and Goodwill To All Men.” We at the Guyana Public Service Union embrace those sentiments. Indeed, we believe that the importance of Christmas reposes in the respite that it offers from conflict and confrontation.
At this time, we reach out, first and foremost to every Public Servant across Guyana and those who continue to serve us in foreign lands. We salute, as well, those servants of the public in our disciplined forces. We reach out too to our leaders across the political divide, to our Ministers and Parliament and to His Excellency and his family.
At this time of year we reserve a special place in our hearts for that category of Public Servant designated simply – and in our view, condescendingly – as Sweeper/Cleaners; these guardians of the environment in our schools, workplaces and other public places who, for years, and to our national shame have been consistently denied the entitlement of a minimum wage. This Christmas, the Guyana Public Service Union wishes to renew its commitment to what we regard as an uncompromising struggle to correct this historic injustice.

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FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS OF GUYANA

A joyous festival of celebration of a miraculous and divine birth is now an occasion that transcends Christianity and embraced by all.
Guyanese have made Christmas all their own. If it is sometimes too commercial it is nevertheless still characterized by the spiritual aspect which Christian belief teaches. The drama of the virgin birth in a tale complete with expressions of poverty, even King Herod’s murderous exploits in killing male babies he was jealous of. But the Baby Christ survived and he became a saviour for the later Christians and all who would believe.
The foregoing sentiments inform the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) message for our Christmas Guyana 2015.
Our leaders all promise us good things – for workers, youth, women, hinterland residents, et al; policies and programmes are structured for our benefit, we are assured. But do we as a people receive the good consequences of those promised? Yet there is a lot of charity at Christmas. The gift of the Baby Christ does inspire a plethora of gift-giving at this Season.
FITUG is happy at this spirit. However, our thousands of members look beyond charity and gifts for their future.

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GUYANA AGRICULTURAL AND GENERAL WORKERS’ UNION

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) finds it easy to welcome and participate in the festival of Christmas 2015.
Before the traditional 12 days which celebrate the Birth of the Christ Child – the bedrock of the Christian Faith, we Guyanese are all caught up in some form of preparation if only to welcome a New Year. This Christian festival is almost now secular in nature that it is embraced by all groups of Guyanese.
GAWU knows that is so because of the universal symbolism of the Christmas Story of the Birth of Hope. It is said that “hope springs eternal in the breasts of men”. What is life if not blessed with the future of hope? But the Infant’s birth was surrounded with the realities of mankind’s earthly vices and “values” of greed, lust and power.
It must also be noted that according to Christian beliefs, the adult Christ became a spiritual leader extraordinaire. He taught compassion and offered spiritual salvation but his “Everlasting Life” seemed not for those leaders who preyed on the poor and sought to accommodate wealth selfishly.
Let us hold both our past and new leaders to such standards that the Christ exemplified. We must be provided with the hope of a bright future collectively – as promised in all the election campaign manifestos. The Birth of the Christians’ Lord provided hope and salvation.

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INDIAN ACTION COMMITTEE (IAC)

The Indian Action (formerly Arrival) Committee (IAC) extends Season Greetings to all. We call on Guyanese to strive to truly make it a season of giving in the spirit of bringing joy and happiness to each other.
Christmas is another festival that transcends religious boundaries and has sustained its tradition of forging unity among all of our people. The camaraderie and sharing over time have resulted in our unique style of making a Guyanese Christmas a truly enjoyable experience. We trust that all would be able to so indulge.
The IAC would also like to urge that in this season of goodwill, we be reminded of the pertinent messages in an effort to foster peace and tolerance.
The IAC recalls the part of the nativity story relates the challenges that Mary and Joseph encountered in their efforts to secure a resting place to give birth to the Saviour Jesus Christ. We believe that the humility they demonstrated through this story and the humble upbringing of Jesus Christ, remain a beacon for all mankind to be guided by.
Further, we believe that humility and respect are integral in the quest for universal peace which appears to be elusive.
The IAC would like to urge that as we celebrate, we remember those who would be unable to do so for various reasons and for them to be kept in our prayers.
In every society, the celebrations are therefore never holistic. Closer to home, the IAC remains cognizant of the challenges some of our fellow countrymen and women face that would prevent them from partaking in the related celebrations.
The IAC hopes that in the spirit of goodwill, such situations can be amicable be resolved.
Once again we wish each and every Guyanese a merry Christmas.

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