“The beginning of the good news of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
                                                                    Mark 1:1

With this abrupt statement, St Mark begins his Gospel.  He maintains this energetic pace for 16 brisk chapters until he arrives at the equally abrupt ending of amazement and fear at the discovery of the empty tomb (16:8).

Mark doesn’t mess around.  He’s straight to the point.  Jesus is the centre of the action from birth to death and beyond.  He is the Son of God.  Our proper response to that message is to repent and believe the good news.

It is compellingly simple and straightforward but how complicated we have made it!  How involved it has all become!  Our compelling unity in Jesus, as he gathers us to wait for his return, should be the most obvious and awe-filled reality of our lives.

Christ has come, and Christ will come again.  His story binds us together.  It prepares us for what is coming.  In just a moment, before we know it, he will come.  Everything we have hoarded for ourselves will count for nothing.  Then we will regret, more than ever, that we allowed things to come between us.

The church is God's, not ours, no matter how long we think we’ve been running it.  Jesus is God’s good news, and we’re here, just for a while, to pick up that message and pass it on.  It’s long passed time we stopped arguing about it and trusted God and each other enough to get on with it.  We must show our unity for the sake of the world

The National Council of Churches is a kind of halfway house to help us practise our unity.  In the Council Churches can meet without compromising who we are or what we believe. We can find out what the others are like.  We can think about the implications of unity, try it out, see if it fits, and get more involved with each other.  It’s important we do this, not for ourselves, but for the world.  The message is always for the world.

The approach of Christmas sharpens our sense of unity.

Only one Christ child was born.

One Saviour came into the world.

Isn’t it time we let everyone know that there aren’t many ‘Christianities’, many Christs, but only the One in whom we believe?

                                                                                                    John Henderson, General Secretary
                                                                                                            Sydney, November 2005