Christmas Greetings  to IAPCHE members in 68 countries around the world!

Aaseervaathamana Christmas

Heri Njema ya Krisimasi Feliz Navidad Merry Christmas Froehliche Weihnachten Shubho borodin Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar Shub Naya Baras Zalig Kerstfeast

Joyeux Noel Keresemose o monate le masego a ngwaga o montsha Feliz Natal Sretan Bozic Melkam Yelidet Beaal

Hyvaa joulua Afishapa

Jwaye Nowel Kung His Hsin Nien bing ChuShen Tan Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket

Selamat Hari Natal Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo Shinnen omedeto ºKrismas Njema Na Heri Za Mwaka Mpyaº Linksmu Kaledu Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun Selamat Ari Krismas enggau Taun Baru Kotobian Tadau Do Krimas om Toun Vagu

Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru I�D Miilad Said ous Sana Saida Pyaw Shwin Thaw Christmas Par! Kreesmasko shubhkaamnaa Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! barka dà Kirsìmatì Ekelere m gi maka Keresimesi na ubochi izizi afo ozo E ku odun, e ku iye'dun Jabbama be salla Kirismati Naya Saal Mubarak Ho Nave sal di mubaraka De Christmas akhtar de bakhtawar au newai kal de mubarak sha Meri Krismas & Hepi Nu Yia Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu Maligayang Pasko Craciun fericit si un An Nou fericit! Bachtalo krecunu Thaj Bachtalo Nevo Bers Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok Geseende Kerfees en �n gelukkige nuwe jaar Sinifesela Ukhisimusi Omuhle Nonyaka Omusha Onempumelelo Siniqwenelela Ikrisimesi EmnandI Nonyaka Omtsha Ozele Iintsikelelo Namathamsanqa Sung Tan Chuk Ha Wilujeng Natal Sareng Warsa Enggal Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn! Suksan Wan Christmas lae Sawadee Pee Mai Seku Kulu Veseloho Vam Rizdva i Shchastlyvoho Novoho Roku! Nadolig LLawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda Nollaig chridheil huibh Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth Nollaig Shona Dhuit Kilisimasi Fiefia & Ta�u fo�ou monu ia Muve neKisimusi

Izilokotho Ezihle Zamaholdeni

Winshuyu sa Svyatkami i z Novym godam! God Jul och Gott Nytt A

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Pictured below: Ken Boersma, Director or Special Projects; Isaac Mutua, Africa Director; Anne Maatman, Director of Operations; Nicholas Lantinga, Executive Director; J. Dinakarlal, Asia/Oceania Director.

by Jon Stanley, doctoral student, ICS

We all have different ways of gearing up for and ringing in the �new year,� which begins officially in September for those of us who live according to the rhythms of the academic calendar. And it seems to me that part of any good spiritual practice of preparation for a new academic year includes revisiting the question of vocation: of the manifold ways possible to love God and neighbour, why have those of us who consider ourselves scholars or scholars-in-training chosen a life of research, writing, and teaching?

One of the ways I�m revisiting that question this year is by returning to an essay by C.S. Lewis that I first read nearly 10 years ago. The essay is entitled �Learning in War-Time� and was originally given as a sermon to a group of Oxford students in the fall of 1939. Lewis begins his sermon like this: �A university is a society for the pursuit of learning. As students, you will be expected to make yourselves�into philosophers, scientists, scholars, critics, or historians. And at first sight this seems to be an odd thing to do during a great war�Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?�

What follows is a Christian case for the academic vocation in any time, including wartime. Warning against either the elevation or denigration of the scholarly task, Lewis suggests the �intellectual life is not the only road to God, nor the safest, but we do find it to be a road,� and for those who feel called to walk this road �the learned life then is�a duty.�

I�d recommend Lewis� essay to any Christian, regardless of their vocation. However, I�m returning to it this year because it was specifically a grace to me during a season of vocational discernment, freeing me (in spite of my own self-doubt about my abilities) to take my first steps down the road to which I believed I�d been called. To return to Lewis� essay, then, is to return to a crucial chapter in the story of my becoming a Christian scholar. The robust vision of Christian scholarship that is not only justified during wartime, but that might serve to end all wars � �turning swords into ploughshares� � is what brought me to ICS. I knew I�d be apprenticed into a tradition that understands the scholarly task as a labour of love, and trusts every scholarly labour done in covenant with God will bless God�s world.

Why do we teach, research, and write? Because we love to, and because it�s one venerable and strategic way we might participate in the performance of God�s will �on earth as in heaven� � in the church, the academy, and the broader culture.