Skip to main content

Salaam


I love Christmas cards... I know they are not environmentally friendly, and that the charity varieties are a very bad way to give to good causes, but I still love them. However, the numbers of cards recieved this year were definitely down, with greater numbers opting for electronic versions... And I have resorted to the same, especially for trans-atlantic friends due to the fact that I am so badly organised and invariably miss the last posting date. This isn't quite the same however, as you can't stick an e-card on the wall, to remind you of the great array of friends and family that surround you...

However, this year, in some strange way, in a year of some particularly encouraging cards, my favourite Christmas greeting was this one...

Dear Friends,
The Mosques & Imams National Advisory Board wishes you a Merry Christmas with the gift of love, peace and happiness. May all these and more be yours at Christmas.
Sending warmest thoughts and best wishes for a prosperous 2011.

Maulana Shahid Raza

Chair of the Mosques & Imams National Advisory Board

What would the Daily Mail say about that? Where is the PC wariness about offending other faiths that some unthinking secularists engage in?

Again I turn to that song of praise sung by the angels:


"Glory to God in highest heaven... and on earth peace...
shalom... salaam..."

Luke 2: 14


Shalom
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...
2 comments
Read more

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...
2 comments
Read more