The Christian Council of Ghana on Tuesday asked Ghanaians to use the Christmas season to express love, friendship, generosity to neighbours in need, hospitality to strangers and compassion for all who are hurt.

Ghanaians must also seek for the things that make for reconciliation, justice and peace, a statement signed by Reverend Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, General Secretary of the Council and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said in Accra.

The statement said it is easy to lose heart “when we look at the numerous challenges confronting us as a country. It seems society has become habitually cynical and mistrustful, our public discourse is now polarized and filled with greed. In the midst of this gloomy atmosphere, we keep asking ourselves whether the current situation will ever get better as we thirst for a new spirit—new ideas, new generosity and a new gratitude for all we have and are”.

It said “Christmas offers us the opportunity to renew our hope, dream and relate better with our Saviour Jesus Christ. We must all remember that, Jesus came, He died, and He has risen from the dead. Jesus is our hope, and that is what CHRISTMAS is all about. Christmas is all about Jesus, you and hope.”

The statement noted that the story of Christ’s birth “reminds us that, even on the margins of the world and in obscurity—as in Bethlehem—God’s future is always coming to birth by the power of the Spirit. As King Herod found, this is a power that the rulers of the world can neither master nor resist.

The Council, therefore, wished every Ghanaian a merry Christmas, and prayed that God makes “our nation great and strong in Jesus’ name”.