* Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply " Santa ", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

He may also be formally addressed as " Your Grace "— or, more often these days, simply as " Archbishop ", " Father " or ( in the current instance ) " Dr Williams ".

According to the Bible, " God raised him from the dead ", he ascended to heaven, is " seated at the right hand of the Father " and will ultimately return to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and final establishment of the Kingdom of God.

He prays " the holy Pope, his Father ", to direct towards him " the strong support of his authority, to transmit the verdict of his favour ".

He declares the pope to be: " his Lord and Father in Christ ", " The Chosen Watchman ", " The Prelate most dear to all the Faithful ", " The most beautiful Head of all the Churches of the whole of Europe ", " Pastor of Pastors ", " The Highest ", " The First ", " The First Pastor, set higher than all mortals ", " Raised near into all the Celestial Beings ", " Prince of the Leaders ", " His Father ", " His immediate Patron ", " The Steersman ", " The Pilot of the Spiritual Ship " ( Allnatt, " Cathedra Petri ", 106 ).

AD 250 – 336 ), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the persons of the Trinity (' God the Father ', ' God the Son ' ( Jesus of Nazareth ), and ' God the Holy Spirit ') and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father.

The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father.

Arius taught that God the Father and the Son did not exist together eternally.

Arians taught that the pre-incarnate Jesus was a divine being created by ( and therefore inferior to ) God the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist.

The Father, working through the Son, created the Holy Spirit, who was subservient to the Son as the Son was to the Father.

The Nicene Creed's central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is Homoousios (), or Consubstantiality, meaning " of the same substance " or " of one being ".

Under Arianism, Christ was instead not consubstantial with God the Father since both the Father and the Son under Arius were made of " like " essence or being ( see homoiousia ) but not of the same essence or being ( see homoousia ).

It is all that subsists by itself and which has not its being in another, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all being uncreated.

According to the teaching of Arius, the preexistent Logos and thus the incarnate Jesus Christ was a created being ; that only the Son was directly created and begotten by God the Father, before ages, but was of a distinct, though similar, essence or substance from the Creator ; his opponents argued that this would make Jesus less than God, and that this was heretical.

The second group also avoided invoking the name of Arius, but in large part followed Arius ' teachings and, in another attempted compromise wording, described the Son as being like ( homoios ) the Father.

A third group explicitly called upon Arius and described the Son as unlike ( anhomoios ) the Father.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct entities, with the Father and the Son possessing physical bodies of flesh and bone but the Holy Ghost existing only as a spirit, enabling it to dwell within us.

* Wendelin discovers a compound of the initial letters, amounting to 365 in numerical value, of four Hebrew and three Greek words, all written with Greek characters: ab, ben, rouach, hakadōs ; sōtēria apo xylou (“ Father, Son, Spirit, holy ; salvation from the cross ”).

The establishment, by the Holy Father, of a permanent Secretariat for Christian Unity in 1960 was the most dramatic mark of this concern.

He had been a choir boy at the Holy Name Cathedral and also served as an acolyte to Father O'Brien.

The Holy Father would die soon, she said to Carla, so she could translate for Sam, although he had a brilliant doctor, a man who did not need the assistance of those doctors offered by the great rulers of the world.

Arius taught that Jesus Christ was divine and was sent to earth for the salvation of mankind but that Jesus Christ was not equal to the Father ( infinite, primordial origin ) and to the Holy Spirit ( giver of life ).

These three propositions were further developed by his followers, who maintained that God revealed Himself in a threefold revelation, the first in the Biblical patriarch Abraham, marking the epoch of the Father ; the second in Jesus Christ, who began the epoch of the Son ; and the third in Amalric and his disciples, who inaugurated the era of the Holy Ghost.

The Latin reads: " The Father is God, The Son is God, The Holy Spirit is God ; God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit ; The Father is not the Son, The Son is not the Father, The Father is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Father, The Son is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Son.

Again, as faith reveals God my Father and Christ my Saviour, I follow without question where He leads me daily by His Spirit of love, wisdom, power and prayer.

To quote the Encyclopædia Britannicas article on Arianism: " In modern times some Unitarians are virtually Arians in that they are unwilling either to reduce Christ to a mere human being or to attribute to him a divine nature identical with that of the Father.

Furthermore, although one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from each other.

: by insisting that the Father and the Son are equal in essence.

In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, " the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God ".

They are distinct from another: the Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father.

Marcionites cannot become martyrs, because they do not believe in the divinity of God the Father – their sufferings are in vain.

In those three there is one, and in that one there are three ; the one God is indivisible, while the three persons are distinct and unconfused, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

All the clergy of Alexandria and Lower Egypt honored him with the appellation “ Papas ,” which means “ Our Father ,” as the Senior and Elder Bishop among all bishops, within the Egyptian Province, who are under his jurisdiction.

You then who are spiritual should worship neither the creation nor the Craftsman, but the Father of Truth.

Among numerous writers of the order in this period are: Cardinals Thomas Zigliara ( d. 1893 ) and Zephirin González ( d. 1894 ), two esteemed philosophers ; Father Alberto Guillelmotti ( d. 1893 ), historian of the Pontifical Navy, and Father Heinrich Denifle, one of the most famous writers on medieval history ( d. 1905 ).

: " O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it ; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath * given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The motto of The North Star was " Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.

However, although " Father Christmas " and " Santa Claus " have for most practical purposes been merged, historically the characters have different origins and are not identical.

Nowadays he is often called Santa Claus but also often referred to in Britain as Father Christmas: the two names are synonyms.

Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letters are letters he wrote addressed to his children from Father Christmas.