O Christmas Tree how lovely are your branches o Christmas Tree o Christmas Tree how lovely are your Branch Branches o Christmas Tree o Christmas Tree above the tree your we faithfully o Christmas Tree o Christmas Tree we faithfully unchanging good morning and welcome to a special Holiday Edition of new day. It is thursday december 25th, Christmas Morning. 6 00 in the east, im chris cuomo, along with Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira and were joined by the young peoples chorus of new york city. What a beautiful version of o Christmas Tree they just gave us, by the way, they have a new album called cool side of yule tide its available in both itunes and cd baby. We have a big show for you, were going to look back at 2014. All the big news stories. The disappearance of flight 370, up and until ferguson. So Merry Christmas, you guys, so great to be with you. Were also going to bring you a religious round table. Have a conversation about the role that faith has played in the headlines this year. And in case youd rather not watch a christmas story eight times straight, we run down a list of the movies you need to catch during the holidays. First a check of the news. Good morning and Merry Christmas, im alison kosik, pope francis addressing the plight of christians and minorities suffering under the hands of isis. The pontiff is calling for tenderness following a violenceplagued year. Lets get to john allen, live on the ground in rome. John . Hi, allison, youre right, pope francis is delivering his traditional christmas message, known as the urbi et orbi message. The pope is calling for an end to what he described as a brutal persecution in iraq and syria. That he said has gone on for far too long. This caps what has been a message of outreach to the victims of persecution in the middle east by the pope this christmas time. On tuesday he released an open letter to those christians, calling for an end to the violence thats plaguing them. Last night in a surprise gesture, he made a phone call to People Living in a refugee camp living outside erbil. In addition hes expressing consolation and hope to victims of violence elsewhere, including the Central African republic in congo and expressing sympathy for victims of the ebola virus and for children living under conditions of hardship. Its a message of consolation and hope on Christmas Day, allison. John allen, liven in rome. Midnight mass in new york offering reassurance to a troubled city, the cardinal noting the presence of new york city mayor bill de blasio and governor andrew cuomo. Dolan addressed the tensions in the city between protesters calling for Police Reform and those mourning the murder of two Police Officers. Dolan called those killings senseless and irrational in his homily. He urged political leaders to quote invite us to dialogue, to listen instead of shouting. Violence erupting in berkeley, missouri, right outside ferguson, where a teen was shot dead bay cop tuesday night. Demonstrators swarmed a gas station where Antonio Martin was gunned down. Demonstrators held a diein and blocked a highway. Several angles of Surveillance Video have been released of the confrontation between martin and police, it appears to show the teen pointing what looks like a gun at the officer. A weapon was recovered at the scene. Former president , george h. W. Bush remains hospitalized this morning. But aides say the 90yearold father of george w. Bush had a good day on wednesday, the elder bush was taken to a houston hospital tuesday night suffering shortness of breath. He was hospitalized in 2012 in bronchitis and took two months to recover. But the chief of staff tells cnn this is not two years ago, gene becker says its a hiccup, he should come home in a few days. The comedy the interview set to hit about 300 movie theaters across the u. S. Today. President obama, whos vacationing in hawaii for the holidays says hes happy sony had a change of heart. Im glad its being released. Merry christmas, everybody. Sellouts are being reported at some theaters that have decided to show the movie. If you cant see it in theaters, check it out online. Its now streaming for a price on several sites, including youtube, google play and the Microsoft Xbox video game console. A few of the kids calling norads Santa Tracker hotline got an unexpected christmas present, phone time with first Lady Michelle obama. The fifth year mrs. Obama has answered the call. She spent a lot of time on the phone talking to a few kids. She told children exactly where santa was and that he would arrive at their homes just after they went to sleep. Those are your news headlines, now back to a special Holiday Edition of new day. What do you say we begin this morning by talking about the role of faith in some of the biggest headlines of the year. We have a very special group of wise people with us. Father dave dwyer host of the busted halo show on sirius xm and reverend christine lee, the vicar for all angels church. And also the first woman, right, ordained within the episcopal church. True. First koreanamerican woman. You qualify. Great to have all three of you here, Merry Christmas. Lets go through three big topics, the first is lets deal with whats happening right now. The movements for justice. That we saw coming out of the nonindictments and grand juries in ferguson, missouri and of course eric garner and other cases. Lets start with that. Do you see god, father in whats going on with these protests in this supposed dialogue of social justice. I see god, i see a role for people of faith. Not just people of the cloth. That is, that theres so many dimensions of the situation and a lot of people in society i think gravitate to focusing on the facts and the grand jury. I myself was poring over the grand jurys transcripts going what really happened . When as people of faith we realize that sometimes the presenting issue and the facts is just the surface, we need to get at peoples heart so i believe certainly as ministers we are trained to listen and go beyond that and say i hear that youre hurting, regardless of what the jury convicts or not, we need to be sensitive to peoples emotions. In ferguson, when we were there during the early protests that turned into riots, a big distinction between those two things there were a although lot of clergy there, the main purpose was organizing against the violence. It did seem there was a vacuum of leadership, not to blame them, but just a need. What is the need . How do you talk to people with such a reason for outrage and let them see something past that its very hard. Its very difficult. First of all, historically, we affirm and believe in the right to protest. I mean as americans, thats a value, thats a core value. These protests are good. As long as theyre nonviolent. I support them, i pray for the protesters, im excited that theyre passionate about what theyre talking about. And theyre expressing their feelings in a peaceful way. The problem comes in when we begin to cast blame and we begin to say, we want to change this. We want to change that. And we have to understand that the only way that those things are going to change is we unify around the set of core values as americans. And come together and there is, therein lies the role of faith. I believe that god would use people of faith, people of god whl, particularly the clergy to bring people together in a peaceful way to allow a meaningful dialogue to happen. Right now were not having it. Weve got people on one side, people on the other side. Its hard in the moment. Its hard in the moment. Because people feel theyre not being heard and that takes me to another aspect of this, reverend, is that the members of people of faith there were saying hey listen, also you have to learn to forgive in situations and there have a lot of people certainly africanamerican people who are saying, im tired of forgiving, ire not going to forgive. Yes, i believe, im not forgiving, this system is broken, theyre coming after us, theyre targeting us. How do you bridge that when there is real reasonable basis for their feelings and hostility . How do you bridge that this. I think theres a couple things. I think one is of course the role of forgiveness is huge and as christians we have the story of jesus on the cross, while hes being executed, praying for his enemies, praying for his killers. In faith communities, especially in protests, we have to give people space for the anger and the grief. As well as calling people to forgiveness, theres a communal kind of richness of our traditions, even if you look at the songs, theres room for lament. Theres room for corporate confession, theres also room for celebration. And i think theres something very humanizing about being able to acknowledge all of those experiences and saying theyre absolutely valid. But this is human, too. If you stay in the place of anger, you become less human. There has to be a bridge between the head and the heart. The question is how does faith does do that. Lets do it on a different topic. The role of negotiating a relationship with islam that were going through in the United States right now with tons of prejudice. I think one moment captures it very well with bill maher on his show with ben affleck. Do you remember this . Because its gross, its racist. But its so not. Its like saying its so not. Like saying youre a shifty jew. Youre not listening to what were saying. How can you have more than a billion people, who just want to wait a second. Who youre saying all muslims. I are painting a broad brush. The whole religion with that brush. Youre saying that the idea that someone should be killed if they leave the islamic religion is just a few bad apples . The people who would actually believe in an act that you murder somebody if they is not the majority of muslims at all. We see the first problem demonstrated there when it comes to faith, you talk at each other, not to each other. At the same time it deals with what is this faith. Is it different from the majority christian aspect or Judeo Christian ethic we have here. Father, ill start with you. Reverend what do you say, youre hearing it from your congregants, youre hearing people say, theyre not like us, these are violent angry people we have here. Like christians are held blameless when it comes to that. What do you say . First of all, you have to know the koran. Religions are based on their core beliefs, their holy book, their doctrine. If you really know the crayon, a lot of whats being said is not critique, its true. And thats really scary. Now, people, islamic theologians. Different from the Old Testament . Yes. You put it in the context of the stories and the narratives, right. The holy bible as we see it is a book written by god, the koran is a book about god. And so it was written from the prophet mohammeds point of view. And in there are two halves, two distinct halves in how hes writing. The first half hes reaching out and hes peaceful, hes trying to reconcile things. And the second half hes pretty angry. You know and hes, hes saying well, we need to, we cant reconcile, we need to take over. We need to eliminate those who are infidels or who are not believers. But lets juxtapose that. Theres good reason to believe that much of islam was modeled on judaism and christianity. Both in history and just empirically. You look at the bible, you can flip it the same way. In the koran he starts peaceful and gets angry. In the bible he starts angry and gets peaceful. In america were people of many different religions, races and back grounds. There was a time not long ago when the church i was live at were founded in the 19th century when catholics were looked at kind of askance, still are in some places. Certainly i dont know particularly because of todays global media were at that same level. Its a lot worse. But we were certainly the victim of misunderstanding, people saying thats not really christianity, dont really believe in the same god. I see a lot of that happening now. Youre right, the violence is painted just as easily on christians and catholics down through the ages. Lets end on that. Its not. Is that islam is being looked at in a way that we havent experienced in our lifetimes. Within generations, actually. Of faith being condemned for its actions. What is your message . I would say, im always reminded of the words of alexander solzenitsin. If only it was so simple to put all the bad people over there and divide them from us. His last question was, who is willing to destroy a part of his own heart. I feel like when we begin to say theres them evil people and us good people, i think thats when you move away from what the heart of faith really is about. And to be sure, at best, you have a broken halo. To borrow from your show, i couldnt give you all the credit, father. Thank you to all three of you for the perspective. We need it now. As we talk about the year here, 2014, certainly filled with just unforgettable news stories. No question. And as you know, cnn, we were there for all of them. Flight 370, ebola, ferguson. Were going to reflect on the year that was when our special Holiday Edition of new day continues. But first, whats better than this . Lets listen to the young peoples chorus of new york city and their rendition of joy to the world. Joy to the world the lord is come let earth receive her king let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations rule the glories of his love and righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders and wonders of his love rocks, hills and glades repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy repeat, repeat the sounding repeat the sounding joy to the world lets bring joy into the world repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy volkswagen. Like the sporty, advanced new jetta. And the 2015 motor trend car of the year allnew golf. If youre wishing for a new volkswagen this season. Just about all you need is a finely tuned. Pen. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on select new volkswagen models. You never dwell on how you dont it was made. Ut it. Its just a blanket after all. But when Everything Else has been lost, the comfort it provides is immeasurable. The america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. So this season give something that means something. Support us at redcross. Org i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because it gives me. Zero heartburn prilosec otc. The number 1 doctorrecommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Welcome back to a special christmas edition of new day. From the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 to the protests in ferguson and new york, we look at the biggest news stories defining 2014. Lets bring in managing editor of quartz and cnn gloeshl affairs analyst, bobby ghosh. Lets talk about the stories that were big globally and how the rest of the world covered them. Starting with the mystery that had us so captivated for weeks on end and that was the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370. How did the rest of the world see that . Thats one story thats human, eternal and universal. The same suspense and mystification we felt about it was felt around the world. People everywhere were amazed that this day and age, which all the technology, with the ability of governments and security institutions to tell where you and i are based on where were using our cell phone, that an entire airliner with 240 odd people on board could just vanish into the mist and now its been you know, six, eight months since then and still, not a trace. So thats sort of Bermuda Triangle mystery is very universal and people, whether they were in far mongolia or in, in south america felt the same astonishingment as well as the deep human tragedy of the families not knowing what came of their dear ones. That was so haunting. Shortly after, there was another Malaysian Airlines tragedy, flight mh17 was shot down over ukraine. This is a much more modern tragedy, much more specific. A plane shot down from the sky. Probably an accident, everything indicates that pro russian ukrainian separatists using russianmade arms fired at the plane, thinking it was a Ukrainian Military aircraft. In that case, there was no, there was not much mystery. But quite, with the tragedy the same, of families losing dear ones, people traveling on vacation, their lives being snuffed out because of a conflict in which they had absolutely no part. Another place of conflict, iraq and the rise of isis, here in the United States we have devoted a lot of time and coverage to isis. Who they are, how this happened. How about globally, the coverage of isis . Well closer to the center of the action in places like iraq and in syria, people have known about isis and have been paying much more attention than People Like Us farther away. But this was a year in which they took the center stage. They introduced themselves if you like to the wider world and in the most bloody fashion possible. They are far and away the Worst Terrorist Group i have ever encountered in all my years of covering terrorism and the middle east. The sheer enjoyment that their fighters seem to take from the horrors that they are perpetrating is new. The ability, their ability to master social media and to get their message out is a new wrinkle that makes them more dangerous. It makes them