I’m back working on the website, because I have been grateful for how much people want to stay in touch and to see what I am up to during the next year. I will be on sabbatical after receiving tenure, and I will be spending a good portion of that time from September 2026 until August 2027 overseas. In future posts, I will report more of what the coming year will include.

Now seemed a good time to come up with a new title for the blog. Bailiwick, the former title, is a favorite word of mine, but it does not communicate enough about my work or vocation.

Some other options for blog titles that I considered:

• Eastern Promises
• Spiritual Formation
• A Time of Gifts
• Ad Orientem
• To the East
• To the Sunrise
• Toward the Rising of the Sun

None of these satisfied. I settled instead on Observances.

For myself, the new title indicates an aspiration of the next year, to become more obedient and disponible to God within the vocation and the mission that I have been given. I want to be “an observant,” one with his eyes on God and with real adherence to the way of life in which he continues to place me. I also want to be “an observer,” one who is attentive and watchful, noticing the world around him, especially as I encounter in this year new ways of being Christian, being religious, and being human. 

I will soon add a way to sign up for a monthly newsletter, so that people can stay informed about updates to the blog. You can always follow the blog via any RSS feed reader such as NetNewsWire.

Thanks in advance to any and all who follow along. May this social (and parasocial) relationship be useful and AMDG: for the greater glory of God.