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Venerable Oludare Otoki, the Vicar and Supervising Priest of Basilica of Grace, an Anglican Church under the Diocese of Abuja in the Church of Nigeria, has given reasons why Christmas is celebrated.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Venerable Otoki was preaching a sermon on Christmas Day when he said December 25th is a date set aside to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.
In his sermon titled: What A Mighty God We Serve, Otoki stressed the season of Christmas is a time of the year in which people are more favourably disposed to love one another.
While arguing that nobody can deny the existence of Jesus Christ, the Venerable said Christmas involves everyone, whether old or young, male or female, illiterate or educated.
Otoki said: “Whatever may be your religious persuasion, the celebration of Christmas is not forbidden. There are some celebrations, they will say women must not come.
“There are places where when they are celebrating idols, you must not go there. If you dare go there, they may even sacrifice you.
“But celebrating Jesus Christ is different. Nobody is barricaded from coming to Jesus. So, Christmas does not exclude anyone”.
He went further: “Unfortunately, many people today do not know why we celebrate Christmas.
“If Christ was not born about 2000 years ago, there would have been no Christmas. He is the reason for the season.
“Some people say it was a pagan celebration and that it should not be celebrated. Those people will say Christ was not born on the 25th of December. They were not even alive then to know.
“Christmas is set aside to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is to choose a date to celebrate. Christmas means Christ Mass; two words combined together, Christ and Mass.
“In old English, Mass means celebration, most especially a religious celebration. So, Christ Mass combined together is what we call Christmas today.
“We use the day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, which is good news to the whole world”.