My Dear Friends, this Christmas of 2008 is a time of uncertainty and fear, but like every Christmas, it is also a season of hope.

We live in a world that now shares common fears: the worldwide economic recession with the real threat of lost homes and lost jobs; the threats of terrorism, violence and war. In Bermuda we deal with our fears as we continue to face the various challenges to unity and harmony in our political and civil society as well as the ever more urgent need to educate effectively our children and young people.

Into this world of fear and darkness shines the light of Christmas hope. This year the publication of two Christmas books have given me cause for hope.

The first is a beautiful book by Alastair MacDonald entitled 'The First Christmas'. It recounts in verse the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus narrated by 'Zeke', the donkey that accompanied Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

The text is illustrated with the magnificent icons of Adel Nassief, a contemporary Egyptian iconographer, who painted them in the Coptic Christian tradition that goes back to the earliest days of Christianity.

The book generated hope in my heart not only by truth of the Christmas story and the beauty of the iconography, but also by the fact that the book represents Alastair MacDonald's 25-year quest to tell the true story of Christmas to children in a beautiful and dignified manner.

I find hope in the fact that in our secular world, there are those who still seek the true meaning of Christmas, beyond the tinsel and the songs about Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The second book that gives me hope is entitled 'The Tree Frog and the Poinsettia', written and illustrated by Joan K. Aspinall.

This very Bermudian book tells the story of a tree frog who sings his love and showers a Poinsettia plant with the most beautiful gifts of nature in the tradition of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas'.

His love is rejected by the Poinsettia who becomes enthralled with her own natural beauty.

However, the flower learns that love is the most precious gift of all when she passes her gifts on to the Christ Child.

I have to confess that I may have been unduly influenced by the fact that the illustrations surrounding the important moment of awakening and love in the Poinsettia and the tree frog depict St. Theresa's Cathedral.

Together, the tree frog and the Poinsettia sing a song of love flowing from the beauty of nature and hope in the gift of life:

"In words and notes, they painted the pink of hibiscus, the rose of flaming sunsets on the North Shore, and the deep turquoise of crystal waters washing against the reefs.

"In melodies, they imparted the feel of southwest breezes, the taste of ocean spray's stinging salt upon one's lips, and warmth of sun's bright rays on coral sands. Long into the evening they sang, giving thanks to God that they should live in such a place."

Surrounded by the beauty of God's creation in Bermuda, Christmas invites us to be thankful and to hear the words of another book, the Holy Bible, and believe in an even greater beauty, the promise of God's love revealed in the Angels' song on that first Christmas night:

"Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace to those on whom His favour rests." (Luke 2:14) "For, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, And we saw his glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

Dear friends, may God's favour, revealed in the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, fill your hearts and your homes this Christmas. "As we prepare for the New Year of 2009 and the celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the settlement of Bermuda, we need to pray for God's continued blessings on Bermuda and her people. God bless Bermuda!