Hi COTC Family! 

This Sunday we are excited to be hosting special bilingual services of worship at COTC! While we’ve sung and done portions of our liturgy in Spanish before this Sunday both services will be fully bilingual and more different than previous occasions. Why are we doing this? We’re so glad you asked! 

COTC’s vision describes our desire to be a community centered in Northeast Austin. That means we are committed to a specific place. As described at our Parish Retreat last year this commitment reflects our sacramental and incarnational identity. We care about the physical place God has put us.

This care is reflected in the very name of our diocese,Churches For the Sake of Others. Being “for others,” means, at least in part, that church isn’t first about us. We're called to bear the burdens of others, and practice hospitality. That is often both very good and stretching! This might be even more the case when the “other” is from a different country or speaks a different language

As a community in Northeast Austin theneighborhood of St. Johnsis nearest to our building. It is one of the few remaining historic neighborhoods in our rapidly changing and gentrifying city. Historically an African American community founded by former slaves, St. Johns has grown to include a large number of recent immigrants, especially from Central America. We are getting to know this place and these neighbors and to serve alongside them, primarily through our Bilingual Missional Community.  

This month MC members and partners have been engaged in a listening process: asking God how he is at work in this neighborhood and how we can join him in what he is doing. This has included listening to stories of people in the neighborhood like Judy Lopez (COTC member Mark Lopez’s mother) and “Grandma Wisdom” who has lived and served there for over 70 years! The neighborhood is also home to churches with deep faith and zeal for mission and service such as Lighthouse Myanmar Fellowship and Greater St John's Church of God who we joined for a block party. 

The services this Sunday are a part of this listening process. While both services will be bilingual we are especially focusing on inviting Spanish speaking neighbors to join us for the 11am service. This service is an attempt to be attentive to the place where we are as a church and an experiment in learning how to serve the people who live here. In addition to the changes already mentioned we’ll haveRev. Joel and Mayra Gonzalezfrom Mexico along with some other special Latino guests helping to lead the service. For those of us who don’t speak Spanish or are unused to Latino styles of worship this will be a wonderful opportunity to stretch, learn, and grow. As a part of practicing hospitality and caring for any neighbors who might join in, this is a good thing!  

In preparation for this Sunday please pray for St. Johns and these services. Consider inviting a Spanish speaking friend or neighbor. And come on the 22nd with a flexible and open heart to experience God in a new way alongside our neighbors in the place he has placed us. May God help us become more and more a church centered in and for the sake of Northeast Austin! 

Grace and peace,

Peter+ and Jonathan+ 

Ps. The COTC Missions Team has made a $1000 contribution to World Relief’s work related to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza. The funds will go to providing “aid such as food, clean water, shelter, medical care, sanitation and hygiene facilities and psychological support” for affected Israelis and Palestinians. Please be praying for peace, and, if you'd like to contribute as well, you can do so here.