Beloved Friends in Christ,

Last year an article called "Keep Christ in Christmas" somehow found its way into our church bulletin. The article suggested that the word, 'Xmas', is a modern, disrespectful abbreviation for 'Christmas', deliberately concocted to take the 'Christ' out of Christmas.

Actually, the abbreviation of 'Xmas' for 'Christmas' is neither modern nor disrespectful. Rather, it stems from the fact that the first letter in the Greek word for 'Christ' is 'chi,' and the Greek letter 'chi' is represented by a symbol similar to the letter 'X' in the modern Roman alphabet. In ancient Christian art, 'X' was often used as an abbreviation for Christ's name, as it also was in many manuscripts of the New Testament, making this abbreviation for Christ nearly as old as Christianity itself.

As to the word 'Xmas', it was Europeans in the 16th century, who understood that "X' stands for "Christ', who first used the word as a shorthand for 'Christmas'. At the same time, 'Xian' and 'Xianity' were in frequent use as abbreviations of 'Christian' and 'Christianity'. Evidently, Christ was so central to the thinking of these 16th century Christians that all they needed was an 'X' to turn their hearts to a consideration of Him.

And here is something else for our consideration. The first two letters in the Greek word for 'Christ' ('chi' and 'rho') are similar in appearance to our 'X' and 'P' and were also used by the early Greek writers and artists as an abbreviation for 'Christ', occasionally being superimposed on one another to look like a kind of stickman on a cross. For us therefore, the letter 'X' in 'Xmas' can be a reminder not only of Christ the babe of Bethlehem, but also of Christ our crucified Saviour.

It is this Saviour, crucified as the atoning sacrifice for sinful humanity, that we wish to keep in Christmas; perhaps even by spelling it 'Xmas'.

In His service,

Pastor Richard A. Frey