By Karen TongMonday 23 Dec 2013FaithReading Time: 2 minutes
“For me the true Christmas story assures all of us that God really cares for each of us no matter who we are,” says Rev Ken Clendinning, Director Ministry Support and Development.
“It’s about God entering our world, walking where we walked and knowing our joys and our limitations – it’s God’s invitation to us to follow him and know his forgiveness, his transformation and hope, this and every Christmas and every day in between.”
Audio – Rev Ken Clendinning gives the Baptist Church Christmas Message
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This Christmas, Rev Clendinning reminds us to consider people in Australia and around the world who will be celebrating Christmas in the wake of natural disasters, or in the face of oppression and social injustice.
“These people will not enjoy big dinners, presents under the tree, the extended family gathered together and visits from friends,” says Rev Clendinning.
“As we reflect this Christmas on our response to the coming of God to dwell among us, I pray that we might also exercise hospitality towards those who have no home, no place to lay their heads, and may we to be welcoming to those whom God himself came to save and to serve.”
Audio - Rev Ken Clendinning meets Karen Tong for a friendly chat about Christmas
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One of Rev Clendinning’s Christmas traditions is to give gifts to those who are marginalized or those who are unable to give gifts. “Each year, primarily through Baptist World Aid or something similar, we would buy gifts for people in third world countries,” Rev Clendinning says.
Another family tradition is to collect Christmas decorations from across the globe. “We gather as a family and we hang all those decorations that we’ve gathered from around the world, and we rehearse the stories of our journeys of those different places,” says Rev Clendinning.
His favourite story to tell is about a month-long tour throughout the United States of America and Canada, a family holiday that was taken in 1997. “We’ve got a decoration from every place that we visited,” says Rev Clendinning, “that one is a particularly meaningful one for us because it was the one big overseas family holiday we had together.”