St. Lydia was a seller of purple cloth: a wealthy business woman who appears in the book of Acts.  She was a non-Jewish woman who believed in the Jewish God, as well as a female head of household.  In so many ways, she was an outsider and a oddity in her own culture.  But more than this, Lydia is remembered in particular for her hospitality:

The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her             household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.”

                                                                                            Acts 16:14-15

In many ways, St. Lydia’s is a home in the city -- a place to gather and eat with family in a way that’s rare in New York.  St. Lydia’s hopes to offer hospitality to any and all who would like to sit down and eat together.  It is that practice, rather than our beliefs, that makes us one body.