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Castor Review Greetings from the Chief I extend to the staff and readers of the Castor Review the best of good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. In retrospect, I think of many Christmases including 1916 when I was overseas, but those that stand out were during my boyhood on the Prairies. Father was a teacher in the suburbs of Toronto and in 1903 we moved to the Fort Carleton area, Saskatchewan. He took a school some 17 miles from the nearest village. From 1906 to 1910 we lived on a homestead on the Prairies. Each Christmas during those years, the pioneers in the area, Indians, English, French, Ger- mans, and Ukranians would gather for Christmas Carols and mother would serve lunch. On Christmas Eve and Christ- mas Day, our humble home became a chapel for services and hymn-singing. My parents loved company and neighbors came from miles around to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. Canada's' Prairie pioneers showed deep concern about one another's welfare, and as I look back over the years, it seems to me if that same spirit could be reborn in each of us, many of our problems would be solved. With all good wishes to my fellow Canadians everywhere. John G. Diefenbaker, PC,CH,MP. A Christmas Carol Christmas Eve the snow came down softly on the village steeples, each, regardless of the church it adorned, pointing the way indiscriminately heaven- ward. The silver moon rode high on a sea of clouds and went down behind the trees, touching gently with long, tapering fingers the snowcrusted river. The streets echoed briefly to laughter and the sound of bells and were still in a stillness of anticipation, while behind many an upstairs window curtains were drawn briefly back for a last peek at the new fallen snow, disappointing in its un- touched whiteness. Although no tiny reindeer prints marred the Christmas counterpane, childhood's faith remained unshaken in the com- ing arrival of the fat, jolly elf and his eight tiny reindeer. After all, it was Christmas Eve in a small town and anything was possible as the soft snow came down glossing over the pain and sorrow and frustrations of man's inhum- anity and carrying a promise of eternal relief. Once upon a midnight clear As Charles Dickens once said, it was the best of times and the worst of times, a dictum which applies with almost equal force to any period of history. It appears particularly applic- able to our era, a period of change almost without parallel in man's long story. What a world, this Christmas season of 1977! The Egyptians come to the Jews in a curious love-feast presaging a new relat- ionship in a history of mutual animosity going back to Phar- aoh's daughter. Women march and counter-march demanding the right to be everything but women, while hooting male groups look on and jeer. In Africa, a white society moves with fanatical determination to encompass its own destruction and make inevitable the triumph of black violence which it so greatly fears. All over the world, terror, organized and subsidized, stalks the air lanes, infiltrates the back alleys and campanas of the tight South American dictatorships and makes a policy of assination, robbery and sudden death in the finest and bloodiest traditions of Lenin and Stalin. All in the name of peace and brotherhood. Brotherhood, what crimes, at this Christmas time, 1977, are committed in thy name. Friday, December 2, 1977 Page 5 The Castor Review has called on Canada's senior statesman, local religious leaders, and members of its staff to present this Christmas College. While each of the collage's components is a separate message, when taken as a whole, we feel the pieces form an expression of the spirit of Christmas. Local ministers stress Christmas' religious flavor while staff essays remind us all is not well in the world this Christmas. And who better than the Chief to recall rural Christmases past and long for a rebirth of the spirit that existed in simpler times. Christmas messages Rev. Horace Lamble: St. Mary's Anglican Church In spite of the sophistication of man's technology, it is a troubled worked in which we live. The Feast of the Nativity reminds us that the real owner of this world seeks a relationship with us. He is still in this world offering his peace to those who respond to him. May each of us know the joy of Christmas through fellowship with Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem. Rev. Michael Minvielle: Russell-Metcalfe Roman Catholic Church May the blessings of the Christ child be with you this Christmas and all through the new year. Rev. Robert Huneault: Embrun Roman Catholic Church Un jour, chez Dieu, on discutait d'un grand réve: rassembler dans l'amour tous les hommes de la terre. Le Fils dit alors au Pére: "'J'irai, moi, leur faire part de ce projet. Je me ferai l'un d'eux et leur communiquerai nos intentions." C'est 'ainsi que naquit Jésus 4 Bethléem et qu'il entreprit de manifester aux hommes le réve de son Pére. Dupuis lors, ce projet est toujours en marche. I] ne va pas sans difficultés. Mais dans la mesure ot chacun vit dans l'amour de ses fréres, il permet au réve de Dieu de se réaliser. C'est ce que, chaque année, vient nous rappeler cette belle féte de amour qu'est Noél. Joyeux Noel -- Merry Christmas. Rev. Leonard Woolfrey: Russell United Church Christmas comes each year as man's spiritual corrective. The central problem for all is that of getting a perspective on values. The important thing in our lives should be caring, sharing, loving, giving and worship. A blessed Christmas to all. 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