Toronto the Good addresses the critical issue of partnership between the City and faith communities. This issue is going to grow in importance as the diversity of our population and of our faith communities intensifies. Fortunately, the faith communities have shown how a little can go a long way. The Out of the Cold programs and the many food and clothing banks operated by the Christian congregations add up to a tremendous contribution to the City's welfare. Add in the efforts of all sorts of Christian missions—mainly supported by relatively small annual contributions by many thousands of donors—and you have an irreplaceable contribution to the war on poverty. As I read through Toronto the Good, the image of a multi-faceted jewel came to mind. The jewel is the just and prosperous community we all desire. But it is a jewel with many facets. It's not just the religions that are different. Within religions, there are denominations. Within denominations, there are different congregations. And within congregations, different priorities compete constantly for attention. We face these tensions and trade-offs at The Scott Mission all the time. With a budget of $8 million per year, 100 full-time staff, 4,000 volunteers each year, and 14 major programs in three municipalities, we still long to do more. In our men's and family services alone, we welcome over 8,000 different individuals every year. Many of these come to us monthly, weekly or even daily. Where City government and faith communities intersect best is in the provision of social services within the different neighbourhoods. The propagation of religious belief for the benefit of others is the province of the faith communities alone. For us at The Scott Mission—and this will sound old-fashioned to some—the best and highest good that we can give to a struggling person is the inner resources of a public profession of God's love. This, for us, is the pathway to a new life that will spill over into generosity, kindness and compassion for others. Recently, we completed a governance review in which revisited all of the beliefs that the Mission has held since it was founded in 1941. We came up with three main objectives for our service of love to the City. First, we re-emphasized our commitment to providing basic necessities, social services and emergency relief services, including food, hot meals, clothing, first aid, shelter, child care, youth services, counseling and advocacy. Second, we strengthened our commitment to develop housing and residential facilities that will give at-risk people a chance to make a significant break with the vicious cycles of addiction, mental illness and low self-esteem that have held them back. Third, we recommitted ourselves to our long-standing evangelical Christian faith basis. Our Bible study groups, prayer groups and multi-lingual Christian fellowships have recently seen a surprising growth. This is not because we obligate the poor to believe what we do. On the contrary, we encourage them to be who they are in their own way. No, the groups grew because of the deep spiritual hunger that is as severe as any shortage of food or housing. I suppose my prayer for our multi-faceted jewel of a City would go something like this:Lord, help us faith communities to support our political leadership in the incredibly complex task with which they have been assigned;Lord, help our City leadership to continue to allow all faith communities to gently and peacefully preach and practice our various professions of faith without this being held against us as a form of discrimination;And, dare I say it . . .Lord, let Toronto home and property owners not begrudge the relatively minor increases in property taxes that would enable the City to reduce the public debt and build up the social services and housing that the poor need.I know I won't get elected any time soon on a platform of property tax increases. But if we aren't prepared to donate our unused clothing, if we can't find a way to provide a few cans of food a week to our local food bank, if we can't donate the price of a cup of coffee per day (tax deductible!), if we can't visit an elderly person, and if we won't pay the taxes necessary to support this jewel of a City, then we'll get the City we deserve: a City that is increasingly difficult to govern, a growing number of disgruntled and dispirited poor, and city services and faith communities that are overwhelmed with demands. Partnership between the City and faith communities? Toronto the Good is right, that's a key issue. But it has to begin in our hearts first.