Synagogue Council Issue Chrisimas Message to Prominent Christian Leaders

The Synagogue Council of America, on behalf of all synagogues in America, issued a Christmas message to five Catholic and Protestant leaders in the United States. The five are: Charles P. Taft, president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America; Msgr. Patrick A. O’Boyle, Archbishop of Washington; Francis Cardinal Spellmen; the Rev. Dr. Ralph H. Long, president of the National Lutheran Council, and Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The message read:

“It has been one of the heartening manifestations of good will between our respective faiths that Christian leaders have made it a custom to express greetings to the occasion of our Holy season.

“At this Christmastide, whon the Christian world dedicates itself to good will, it is our reciprocal privilege to greet you and, through you, the members of the Christian community.

“There is so much in both Judaism and Christianity common to both our creeds that in extending to you the greetings of the season on behalf of the Synagogue Council of America, I pray that in the many carses which bring us together in the future, as they did in the past, we will find even more ground on which to advance the worship of God and service of humanity with increasing loyalty to our own especial traditions and religious heritage, but also with increasing mutual fellowship and respect.

“We trust that through our mutual efforts we can establish good will as a never-ending discipline among men so that the Christmas season which highlights it may be interpreted as a new emphasis on an eternal spiritual doctrine.

“The Synagogue Council of America greets you and all our Christian neighbors and we pray that before many years a real and lasting peace will come to bless the world.”