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Dear friends of the Living Church,
Warm Advent greetings from the Living Church family.
I say family because that is how it has always felt. Arriving at TLC 12 years ago, I found our Milwaukee offices packed with the past: bursting filing cabinets and card catalogs (yes!), handsome bound volumes of The Living Church stretching back to the 1880s, and a broad library, including books inscribed with F.C. Morehouse’s cursive hand and a wealth of liturgics bequeathed by H. Boone Porter, supplemented by David Kalvelage’s collection. John Schuessler, our veteran managing editor, oriented me to the culture of our ministry with humorous, poignant, and simply instructive stories. And I heard from many of our readers in written correspondence, who shared memories, encouragements, and hopes for TLC’s perduring contribution to the life of the Church.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. We still produce a first-class magazine, the circulation of which has grown ten percent in 2021, alongside a burgeoning blog (Covenant), podcast, and sermon resource (The Living Word). We still publish that annual treasure trove of wisdom upon which all organists and choirmasters rely, The Episcopal Musician’s Handbook.
And we are gearing up again for both General Convention and the Lambeth Conference next summer, at both of which a full suite of TLC staff will stand ready to make friends, forge new partnerships, listen, learn, and report what we see. In short, we remain delighted to serve the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, yay, even since 1878, in the resonant words of our tagline.
Basic to all of this are your annual gifts to our ministry. Charitable contributions make up 40 percent of our annual budget. Our plans for the next decade will depend upon income from our steadily growing endowment, the corpus of which doubled in 2021. If you can, please give generously this year both to the operating budget and the endowment. Every dollar that you send to TLC marks a wise investment in the future of the Church. Every dollar is also tax-deductible.
This Christmas, I am grateful to God for all of you who make up the extended family of the Living Church. If you feel so moved, please drop me a line by email ([email protected]), or, even better, by post (3308 Daniel Ave., Dallas, TX 75205). I would love to hear your news, encouragements, thanksgivings, and concerns.
Yours ever, in the gracious light of our Lord’s Incarnation and the hope of his imminent return,
 
Christopher Wells, PhD
Executive Director & Publisher
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