St. Louis church plant offers worship space, welcome for African, Afro Caribbean immigrants

Reported by Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] Grace Africa Christian Connection in St. Louis, Missouri, is only two and a half years old, but already it has an average Sunday attendance of about 40, with another 80 people involved in community life. Its mission is to serve African and Afro Caribbean immigrants living in the United States, and today people from at least 15 countries call it their church home.

GACC, as it is known, is a church plant of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri that came about through a chance meeting in early March 2020 of then-Bishop-elect Deon K. Johnson and seminary student Mtipe Koggani. That morning Johnson attended Emmanuel Episcopal Church near his home and struck up a conversation with Koggani, a lifelong Anglican from Tanzania who had come to the U.S. to study at Eden Theological Seminary, just across the street from the church. He asked Koggani if he knew of other Africans living in the area, and Koggani said he could name at least 50 people.

Sensing a mission opportunity, Johnson told Episcopal News Service, “I said, ‘Let’s get you into the ordination process and ordain you.’” Koggani, who had been an active lay pastor at his home church and had planned to return to Tanzania after he graduated, told ENS the reason he was going to seminary was to serve the church. Johnson’s offer, he said, “was an opportunity to serve my African brothers and sisters.” So he said “yes.”

Even though COVID-19 restrictions were announced the next week, plans for Koggani’s ministry progressed. He graduated from Eden, served a year in the Episcopal Service Corps at the DuBois Center in Illinois, and then graduated in 2022 with a diploma in Anglican Studies from Virginia Theological Seminary.

Johnson noted that while Koggani was in Virginia, he created a group chat for Africans back in St. Louis so he could stay connected to them. He also worked with a team of eight people who spent that year listening to what people wanted in a new church community. “We didn’t want to go with the colonial method of us going to them and saying, ‘We are bringing you this,’” Koggani said. “We wanted to have mutual ministry.”

Read more.