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Whether we live in the church calendar which began on November 27 with Advent, or in the secular calendar of January 1, it is still time to reflect on last year and consider what we desire for the coming year. Why desire? Because the gospel leads us to rightly ordered love. New Year resolutions tend to emphasize discipline and will power, which is why they so often fail. Desire is at the core of following Jesus and at the core of what it means to be human. Like the psalmist, when we seek God often enough and long enough, our desire for God increases. The more we sit at his feet, the more we long to be with him.

Is it a nave, a church, a Mission Abbey, or what? This isn’t just semantics. How we talk about what we’re doing on 212 McClellan Road is important. Using the right words and having a shared understanding of these words will only serve to galvanize our church’s mission. So then, what is it exactly that we are building?

The story of St. Patrick begins with a young man named, Maewyn Succat, born not in Ireland, but in Northern Britain. When Maewyn was 16 years old, his home was invaded by Irish marauders, and he was captured, taken across the Irish Sea, and sold into slavery to a Druid chieftain. For six years, Maewyn remained in bondage to his Druid master.

If you’re like me, you participated in a Pastorate during the Fall, enjoying great fellowship and sharing Christ in meaningful ways with your fellow group members. Then suddenly, it seemed to end just as we were beginning to discover something profound. You left with a feeling of “not being done yet” (spoiler alert: you weren’t).

For our fifteenth year as a church, 2019 was a big one! Much of our energy this year was given toward our Mission Abbey vision. As we dream about the church God would have us become, especially lived out on the 10 acres at 212 McClellan Road, we continue to be guided by our desire to be a people who share in the life of God for the life of the world. Developing a “Mission Abbey” is an outgrowth of that desire.

All of life is bittersweet. I write to you all with a balance of sadness and hopefulness for the future. Over the last month, I received a call to the care of souls and to serve as the Rector of Church of the Holy Trinity in North Augusta, SC. The sad part is leaving All Saints. We are a parish of people marked by peace, stability, good leadership, financial stability, and most of all, love for one another and those outside of our community. It’s hard to leave such a people.

Praise God for his work among us during our recent Season of Discernment! These past months have simply been an intensification of what All Saints always strives to be—a people marked by prayer who listen to and are guided by the Holy Spirit in all things. Our desire for this season was to engage the entire parish to ensure that our journey toward building a Mission Abbey was a shared one, unified and in step with the Spirit.

Can you believe it? All Saints turns fifteen next month! Fifteen years of forming a community who shares in the life of God for the life of the world. There is so much to look back on, so much to celebrate, so much to give God thanks for. In his grace, he has created a multi-generational family eager to house his Spirit’s presence, eager to welcome others into this joyful participation, and eager to follow Jesus in the Anglican Way. We are by no means a perfect church, but we do serve a perfect God, and he continues to deal generously and lovingly with this local family.

What’s the simplest way to change the world? It’s practicing Christian hospitality. All of us want to make a difference in our world for Christ. But frankly, days roll by and not much changes. Christian hospitality is an easy way to break the cycle. We all have neighbors that would much rather enter our living room than a church. Simple Christian hospitality is a natural and effective way of building relationships for Christ.

The Way of the Cross, or traditionally, the Stations of the Cross, is a spiritual practice of the worship and adoration of Jesus as we contemplate his journey to the Cross. The prophet Isaiah cried out, “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed” (Is. 53:5). It is a pilgrimage into the sufferings of Jesus as we recall the scenes of his life prior to his death on the Cross.