00:00In this, with the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.
00:10It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation, the way our Lord lived and died.
00:20As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common.
00:28A shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life.
00:35If we can find time in our journey through life to think on these virtues, we can all make the future more hopeful.
00:45The end of the Second World War is now remembered by fewer and fewer of us as the years pass.
00:52But the courage and sacrifice of our servicemen and women, and the way communities came together in the face of such great challenge, carry a timeless message for us all.
01:06As we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight.
01:21Of course, the greatest pilgrimage of all is the journey we celebrate today, the story of the one who came down to earth from heaven, whose shelter was a stable, and who shared his life with the poor and lowly.
01:38It was a pilgrimage with a purpose, heralded by angels, that there should be peace on earth.
01:46That prayer for peace and reconciliation, for doing to others as we would have them do to us, which rang out over the fields near Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, still reverberates from there and around the world today.
02:07It is a prayer for our times, and our communities too, as we journey through our lives.
02:18So, with these words and my whole heart, I wish you all the most peaceful and very happy Christmas.
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