Weekly News | 4.25.25
The life of the Church is profoundly resilient. It has endured and expanded and been embodied across centuries and cultures.
It is also deeply dependent. Each generation needs the Spirit of God to lead them afresh, to move them into life in Christ and into his kingdom in their place and time.
In both the resiliency of the Church as well as her dependency, we are invited to pray. We are beckoned to draw near God, asking him to provide all we need to live in faith together.
There are three ways I want to invite your prayers this week:
1) Pray for Those to be Baptized on Sunday
This Sunday (9AM & 11AM) we will be celebrating the sacrament of baptism! Twelve from our community will be baptized, and we will pray that “all who are baptized here be cleansed from sin, be born again, and continue forever faithful in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior” (BCP 2019). Join us for this fitting Eastertide celebration!
2) Pray for our Diocesan Bishop
Next year, our founding Diocesan Bishop Todd Hunter, will retire. He has been a tremendous gift to the churches and clergy of our diocese, and we are incredibly grateful for his leadership!
This Saturday, clergy and lay delegates, having considered the highly qualified slate of candidates, will select C4SO’s next Diocesan Bishop. Thank Mtr. Kimberly, who served on the Search Committee, and labored diligently to vet and nominate our candidates!
Pray for the Spirit to lead us, and to empower our next bishop to “represent and serve Christ and the Church as chief pastors, catechists, and missionaries in the tradition of the apostles. They are to confirm and ordain, and to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church.” (To be a Christian, ACNA Catechism).
3) Pray for our Parish
On May 18th at 10:15AM (between services) we will hold a special parish meeting. All are welcome! If you are a COTC member, please make every effort to be there. In addition to hearing about the life of the community and a Thanks Be to God update, the church membership will vote on a new Parish Council member.
Jon Ingle has faithfully served on Parish Council these past 5 years, sacrificially extending his time of service to lovingly ballast the ship as we navigated the waters of transition. He is a thoughtful, discerning, and Spirit-led man, whose contributions to the life of COTC since its inception cannot be overstated. I’d wager a lot of what you love about the church is something Jon and Cassidy have personally embodied and labored to see come to fruition. Well done, Jon.
I invite you to read about our new candidate for Parish Council, Brian Smith, and about the Parish Council. Brian is the kind of person it is easy to point to and say, “Imitate him as he imitates Christ.” Quick to respond to the Spirit, he is someone who not only has gifts that resonate with the Parish Council’s work, he has the character. I am grateful for Brian’s willingness to serve.
Join me in offering hearty prayers of thanksgiving for Jon, and for God’s continued favor through the leadership of the Parish Council. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback regarding this special parish meeting or our Parish Council nominee, please feel free to reach out to me or the Parish Council.
See you Sunday,
Sarah+