Church of the Advent was known for a while as “the blankets church.” The new startup, founded in 2008, was renting worship space from a small Methodist church, but the off-and-on heat had members huddling in blankets while listening to sermons. The church’s rector, Thomas Hinson, looks back on that time fondly now. Hinson came to D.C. in 2007 to be near his girlfriend, now wife, and found himself called by God to minister in the nation’s capital. Church of the Advent, affiliated with the Anglican church in Rwanda, is part of a network of new, local Anglican churches called “Renew D.C.” and dedicated to transforming the world around them. It meets in Columbia Heights. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?

Yes, a Christian. I most appreciate the kind of hope that it offers the world. It’s the story of God, at infinite cost to himself, redeeming and restoring a broken world into something beautiful and perfect.