As we enter the New Year, many people in our culture are thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. New Year’s Resolutions are usually things that are externally motivated; that is, they are things we feel we ought to do, but which we haven’t really owned, we haven’t really counted the cost and chosen them with our whole heart and mind and strength. And so when it gets tough to keep them, we fall away. Think of our under-used work-out equipment or fitness club memberships, half-done projects, partly-read books, abandoned hobbies and neglected honey-do lists! My concern is not to get you to finish those projects—it is rather to exhort you not to treat Jesus that way. Don’t let your relationship with Jesus be just one more thing you began because you thought you ought to, and then drifted away from, lost interest in, stopped working at.

But the Lord’s greatest promise was not merely about architecture, but it was a promise that He Himself would be there, abiding with His people. “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst” (2:5). He would be their protection outside the city, since Jerusalem had no walls of defense. And His very presence would be within the city as He once again came to dwell among them.

He advised us to make time in our materialistic world to be with God, and to let the Lord speak to us through Scripture. He cautioned, “Your ability receive God’s word is determined by our willingness to do what he says.” “He will reveal His will to you if you truly seek it.”

Off we went to St. Stephen’s, Heathsville. We did not know that we were at the very onset of an amazing new and unexpected course. My interest in Anglicanism, from before seminary, was just dormant. We did not know yet, in the car that Sunday, that the Lord sets up stopovers in his own fashion, prepares unexpected inns for travelers, and has surprises and gifts in reserve, not unlike the ones we prepare for Christmas.

In 2006, the DC Government determined that a shelter for the homeless was the best use for the historic Gales School at 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW. The city was concerned about not only renovating the decrepit structure but also providing services for the community. After failing to sell the facility, the District requested proposals for a long term lease. Out of three applicants, the proposal submitted by Central Union Mission (where St. Brendan’s in the City worships) was selected. Following a lengthy lease negotiation, this July, the District Council agreed to release the property from government use and to allow the Mission to lease it for 40 years with a subsequent 25-year extension available.

Members of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic came out for testimonies, praise, worship and fellowship during the first annual Diocesan Synod on November 18-19 at All Saints’ Church in Woodbridge, Va.