NCC President Issues Advent Message
Diocesan Press Service. November 21, 1973 [73253]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Rev. Dr. W. Sterling Cary, president of the National Council of Churches, has issued the following Advent Message to member churches:
"The four Advent weeks preceding Christmas traditionally are a period of preparation for the celebration of the coming of the Prince of Peace. This year our nation needs such preparation more than ever before. How dare we herald the fact of Christ's presence if our national life remains in its present state of moral disarray? Somehow by the grace of God we the people need to stand before our Maker, whether our President joins us or not, and acknowledge that we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We need to confess that we share in responsibility for the crass wrongdoing of those who rule over us and who work beside us in the affairs of government. Neither we nor our leaders are a wholly righteous people; on occasion we are sinful beyond our own recognition. The whole body politic cries out for moral renewal.
" It was into such a world that our Lord came, and he waits still to be admitted to our hearts. Let churches this Advent become a place of painful meditation, a crucible of purification, a font of new purpose, a source of redirected action. Then can we welcome the Babe of Bethlehem in sincerity and in truth. "