Weekly News | 5.2.25

Hello from Kansas City! Several from our staff team are attending C4SO’s Clergy Conference. A chance for collegial connection, ministry development, and sincere worship. It has been a full three days!

We are a part of a vibrant diocese, and it is a gift to hear what the Spirit is up to in parishes near and far. If you are newer to COTC and haven’t had a chance, I encourage you to get a sense of the richness by checking out the website, instagram, or podcast.

On a very different note, this week we learned that a family beloved in our community, Kwasi and Elizabeth Agbottah, were hit by a car and tragically killed. I did not arrive at Church of the Cross until after their family made the move to Detroit, but all who knew them from their time here attested to their deep and sincere faith, lived out powerfully in service of the poor and marginalized. Their year at COTC was impactful for our community. Pastors in their lives attest to tremendous continued faithfulness. I invite you to consider giving to the gofundme that will help support their five children, and ask for your prayers for their family and all who grieve.

If you or your family would like to connect around the loss of the Agbottahs, please let me know. We need spaces to grieve together and mourn, to let our tears and our anger and our confusion be seen by God and others. This is, paradoxically, part of how we move toward Jesus, what it looks like to live in an unfair world with faith in the Resurrection.

I invite you to pray, with an invitation to draw from these offered by the Book of Common Prayer:

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servants Kwasi and Elizabeth. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: deal graciously with those who mourn, especially the Agbottah family. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Peace,

Sarah+