Every year since at least 1988, The Lincoln County News has published a Christmas message from a local clergyperson on the front page of its Christmas edition.
The newspaper asks a different clergyperson to write the message every year, rotating by denomination and geography.
The 2016 “Christmas messenger” was the late John Dancer, then-pastor of the South Somerville Baptist Church. The 2017 messenger was Fr. Frank Morin, pastor of St. Michael’s Parish, which includes St. Denis Church in Whitefield. Both were the first messengers from their respective churches.
This year’s Christmas messenger is the Rev. Erika Hewitt, minister of the Midcoast Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Damariscotta. She is not only the first minister from her congregation to give this message, she is the first Unitarian minister to deliver the message.
The newspaper does not give the clergyperson any particular guidelines for the message. He or she can write whatever he or she chooses, and each messenger takes a unique approach.
Every year, a few readers express discomfort, even disgust, at this tradition.
We considered this year whether to add a note at the end of the Christmas message to explain why we run it, but did not want to distract from the message itself. Hence this explanation.
Regardless of personal religious beliefs, we believe we all can benefit from consideration of the Christmas story. It is, after all, a story of personal sacrifice for the common good.
Some readers ask why we do not run a Hanukkah message or a Ramadan message on the front page.
One only has to look at our weekly church page for an explanation. Lincoln County has 53 churches, by our count. It has no mosques and no synagogues, though some residents travel outside the county to worship at both.
The reason has to do with the history and settlement of the region, rather than any modern-day exclusion or intolerance.
It’s worthy of note that our church page includes listings for the Baha’i religion and a Baha’i-affiliated interfaith class. Should another faith establish itself here, we will publish its meeting times as well.
We would welcome other contributions from other faiths as well: perhaps a commentary to explain their traditions or educate us about how people of those faiths worship in this area without a physical headquarters like the Christian faith has in abundance.
Despite suggestions to the contrary, we are not intolerant of other faiths or those who adhere to none. We think the community – any community – only benefits from diversity, in religion or otherwise.
More than anything, we welcome an open dialogue on both the practice of the Christmas message and its contents every year. Write a letter to the editor and tell us what you think.
We think we would all benefit if we set aside our outrage over things like the Christmas message and make a genuine attempt to understand each other.
