Rev. T. Alan W. Garrity

The Church of Scotland in Bermuda

This year's Boat Parade was a wonderful spectacle! It's good that so many of the community take part. There is the sheer enjoyment of seeing the various boats with their wide diversity of themes and presentations and colour. From many places all around Hamilton harbour and beyond people could see the wonderful reflections of the lights dancing on water, hear the music of Christmas, and enjoy the magnificent fireworks display to finish.

My own congregation Christ Church in Warwick entered a boat - with simple but profound message written in light along each side “Give us Peace”. Above there was a dove, the universal Biblical image of the presence of God, and in its beak a branch for peace.

We in Christ Church were delighted to win prizes for our design and for our creative use of lighting. My hope is that not only has our entry been seen and appreciated, but also that our message may speak to each one of us this Christmas time.

There are many good things in our world today. We only need to compare them with the hardships faced by many in previous generations. It is not all that long ago that young children went down the mines in Britain (where I was born) - or climbed chimneys to clean them. Living conditions for many were very basic, and there was not much time for leisure and enjoyment.

In today's world there is greater opportunity for people to live enjoying time for leisure to play sport, to travel, or to do one or more of a whole host of things to enrich the quality of their lives.

We didn't need September 11th, and we didn't need an advanced in psychology or nuclear physics, to discover that with all the potential for living good lives, our world was not at peace. But September 11th uniquely and terrifyingly raised questions of, peace and the lack of it, security and its opposite - fear, love and one of its opposites - hate (for another opposite to love is apathy), hope and its opposite - despair, selfishness and is opposite - service for others. We saw and experienced all these on 11th September, and we've seen and heard of them since - in the faces of those in Afghanistan; on the streets of Jerusalem and in Palestine; in the tension between India and Pakistan - and we can go round the world in our imagination and select any one of a number of places where peace is struggling to exist.

So “Give us peace” is heartfelt cry to the leaders of the world.

Of course, we can come much closer to where we live, and feel the tensions in our homes, and in those of our families and friends. We can experience conflict where were work, and even where we play. And even closer still we know, as no earth knows, the uncertainly and anxiety in our own hearts as we consider the ‘brave new world' post-September 11th!

It is here that the message “Give us Peace” is so powerful, for we all need the sense of inner peace which gives each one of us the spirit to face all that lies ahead for us, and for those we care about. The wonderful message of Christmas is that God comes in Jesus - and gives us the power to meet our difficulties and temptations and sorrows - and gives us His grace to enjoy our pleasures and successes and achievements - and if we trust Him, in His love He gives us a unique quality of peace to deal with both.

So we ask - “Give us peace” May God's peace be your experience this Christmas.

On behalf of Christ Church Warwick, I take this opportunity to wish the people of Bermuda a Happy Christmas.

God bless you and your family and friends.