NORTH SHORE PAS THE CHRISTIAN Christmas message is alive and well, despite numcrous plump Santas and stuffed turkeys, accor- ding to Chrisiian leaders on the North Shore. A North Shore News survey Monday revealed that most North Shore Christian leaders think the message of the Christian church about Jesus of Nazareth’s birth is By ROBERT BEYNON Contributing Writer still alive and relevant in our mod- ern, secular world. fabulous designer fashions, accessories, giftware and much, much more at up to 0 Tf off regular © retail prices Open 12-4 on Boxing Day Why shop anywhere else? & Delta 590-5343 273-8644 1079 Marine, N.Van. 980-2208 Richmond W. Broadway 731-6123 eo Nes cisiast] TORS CLAIM re Father Lobez Gallo of Saint Pius X Roman Casholic parish claimed that the world is on the edge of a spiritual revolution. “Now, at the end of this century, a new spiritualism is being born, a desire to escape, to Buddhism, or Hinduism... Even the Catholic church wants {to renew itself cadets honored PAGE 35 through =the council,” said Gallo. The world goes through cycles of spiritual activity or drought ap- proximately every 400 years, he said, and we have just been through a drought. Gallo said the surest sign of this new coming age is a renewed inter- bishop’s NEWS photo Terry Peters est ia the church among youths. The Christmas message of the birth of the Christ, the Messiah, is not going to go away, said Gallo. “People take advantage of it to muke business, big business, and that is very sad,"’ he added. The rector of Saint Richards Anglican church agreed that the Christmas message is not disap- pearing in these modern times. Virginia Briant said Christmas has strong clements of both a Christian religious feast and a pagan holiday of drinking and feasting, but that the pagan aspects of Christmas have not destroyed the Christmas message. “i'd say the message has been hidden by materialism and the world,” said Briant, ‘‘but that does not mean Christ won't be vic- toriuus.’’ She said that the New Testament prophecied that this time would come when people would ‘seek this Christ and that Christ’? but that the Christmas message still has the power to br- ing hope and life to people. Only J. McKay, pastor of the. Westlynn (Southern) Baptist Church, expressed strong worries that the Christian Christmas message might be lost in future years. ‘'} think there’s still a Christams message, but it’s not as strong as it should be,’* McKay said. ‘Unless we get a revival from God it’s going to decrease.”’ He added that he is hopeful that God will start a spiritual revival that will turn Canada into a nation -of Christians. Turkeys and Santas are not bad in themselves, but they are pushing the Christian message of Christmas into the background, he claimed. McKay said the Christmas message is that the son of God became a human and lived on earth to reveal himself to people and to die for people's sins.