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As we head into spring (which I’m assured really does begin almost as I write this), I bring good news. The Board of Directors of the Diocese of Olympia at their meeting on March 16 passed a motion to “accept the sales agreement proposed by Louis Randolf Homes, LLC, to purchase the northern portion of both parcels currently owned by the diocese that comprise the campus of All Saints Episcopal Church, Tacoma, for the cash price of $350,000.” This is the north portion of the property just beyond the portables.

George Augustus Selwyn was born on April 5, 1809 at Hampstead, London. He was prepared at Eton, and in 1831 was graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow.

Cyril and Methodius, brothers born in Thessalonika, are honored as apostles to the southern Slavs and as the founders of the Slavic literary culture. Cyril was a student of philosophy and a deacon, who eventually became a missionary monastic. Methodius was first the governor of a Slavic colony, then turned to the monastic life, and was later elected abbot of a monastery in Constantinople.

When I think of what has happened at All Saints’ in the past year, I’m tempted to consider first the break-ins we’ve had—four since last September, each of them substantially damaging to the property. In my former Indiana parish, located in a poor neighborhood, we also had four break-ins, though these occurred over 17 years. It’s a different order of magnitude here apparently.

The designation of this day as the Feast of the Holy Name is new to the revision of the Prayer Book. Previous Anglican Prayer Books called it the Feast of the Circumcision. January first is, of course, the eighth day after Christmas Day, and the Gospel according to Luke records that eight days after his birth the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus.

We’re into Christmas season now, a time when we give gifts to the people we love. We do it in part to remind ourselves that our friends and family are important. We also do it to remind ourselves why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Very probably a Hellenistic Jew, Stephen was one of the “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” (Acts 6:3), who were chosen by the apostles to relieve them of the administrative burden of “serving tables and caring for the widows.” By this appointment to assist the apostles, Stephen, the first named of those the New Testament calls “The Seven,” became the first to do what the Church traditionally considers to be the work and ministry of a deacon.

We have just returned from ten days in Ireland, split between Dublin, Belfast and Londonderry. It was interesting to me in part because I had been there in 1977 in the midst of the Troubles. In those days, I was working for Jews for Jesus. The story was that a Catholic bishop, asked when there would be peace in Northern Ireland, replied that it would happen when the Jews came preaching Christ. Well, they came, and I was driving the van for one of the music groups.