Happy New Year, dear reader! What a journey we have all been on. In our liturgical calendar, once we’ve begun the new year (with Advent), we find ourselves moving toward Epiphany, a holiday not all are familiar with but one I’ve grown to love.

Growing up, holiday celebrations revolved around Christmas on both sides of my family, and then New Year’s Eve. Now my family and I also carve out time on Jan. 6 to celebrate Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. Continuing a tradition from my partner’s childhood, we put out water and hay for the wise men’s camels, and our son puts out a shoe to receive a gift as the wise men make their way to Christ’s manger.

Commemorating this day — apart from being one more way to give gifts — reminds us that Jesus’ salvation is for everyone. It is for the magi, who were Gentiles. It is for the outsiders.

Not only is Jesus’ salvation for them, but they also bring gifts to share. I find this to be a necessary theological reminder that stays with us during Ordinary Time, the season that began Jan. 11.

Here at Anabaptist World we are eager to press forward with the work in our first year. We are pushing ourselves to grow and provide new opportunities to connect with you and anyone who is interested in Anabaptism.

One new initiative is our membership program. Members provide support through monthly gifts of $5 or more — and thus help to keep our independent journalism online and available to readers everywhere.

Anabaptist World is dedicated to independent news for everyone, and we are committed to keeping our online journalism as open and available as possible. That means we resist paywalls or premium content subscriptions. But this can only happen with readers’ support.

Members receive exclusive benefits, like AW Plus, a members-only email newsletter, opportunities to give feedback through surveys and polls, recognition in our annual report and, for a limited time, a branded magnet.

If you value Anabaptist World’s reporting and perspective, your support matters. We invite subscribers to consider being members, too.

Find out more on our membership page.

We are also excited to launch a podcast, “What Would It Take?,” hosted by Ben Tapper. Ben is an online columnist with Anabaptist World, as he was for The Mennonite. He contributes once a month to the “Five Things” column on Fridays.

In the podcast, Ben addresses justice issues and asks “what would it take?” to find solutions. He brings his personal perspective, theological training and research from activists in the field. You can find the podcast on the AW website, anabaptistworld.org.

With these new multimedia resources that embody our core values, we hope you’ll want to join us on the journey.

P.S.: For some readers, our last issue was significantly delayed in reaching their mailboxes. We are so disappointed this happened. The U.S. Postal Service informed us they were significantly backed up due to a lack of staffing because of COVID and the volume of holiday mail. If you are missing the Dec. 25 issue, please feel free to call our offices, and we will send a replacement.