In depth   

On behalf of the Kenya Episcopal Conference – Catholic Secretariat, management and the staff, we send our season’s greetings to all Catholics and people of good will.

We note with gratitude to God that we have come to the end of the year and therefore entered another festive season of Christmas.

We recall that last year’s Christmas, was marked with anxiety, due to the elections that were foreseen on December 27. We also note that following the elections, our country went into turmoil after the final announcement of the presidential results. Thereafter, there was post election violence which extended to the month of March, which derailed our work like many other institutions in the country. We immediately embarked on peace building, to make it possible for us to begin working again.

In terms of work, this year has been very short and I am sure that I share the same views with the rest of Kenyans; as it was 3 months less in terms of the normal working year. We thank God that peace prevailed after the signing of the National Accord and the formation of the coalition government for which we should all endeavor to pray for, to support for the sake of unity and harmony in our country, for prosperity, for national cohesiveness and improvement of our nationalism.

It has also been a very difficult year, especially from a social economic point of view, with skyrocketing of prices including food stuff and the high cost of living in our country.

However, we have come to the end of the year 2008 and we are preparing ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a relatively and a peaceful environment. Just as we count so many difficulties through the year we are also not insensitive to so many achievements in the short time that was available to us during the year.

We achieved much as the Catholic Secretariat through the commissions of the Kenya Episcopal Conference.

For the Growth of our faith, we are grateful to God and we are optimistic that we will be able to recover the losses that were incurred in the beginning of the year, through sustained efforts for the good of our country and our church.

The spirit of Christmas is a spirit of Hope, Faith and Charity. We need through this season to achieve some reasonable level of appreciation of our brothers and sisters who may have been hit harder than us in the post election violence. We need to reach out to them and invite them to share with us the spirit of Christmas.

It is in this act of charity peace and reconciliation that we extend our greetings to all Catholics and people of good will. In a very special way we extend our greetings to all our archbishops and bishops who guided us through the year. We also extend our greetings to all clergy, religious men and women and all the faithful for the spirit of collaboration and fraternity.

We together wish each other happy celebrations of Christmas, full of joy, peace and prosperity in the years to come.

The Very Rev. Fr. Vincent Wambugu, Secretary General, Kenya Episcopal Conference – Catholic Secretariat