Jesus said to his followers, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." We want to be a people transfixed and transformed by the light of Jesus rising over us like the dawn of a new day and bringing healing to our hearts, our homes, and our city.
It was this vision that ultimately drew Father Trevor and Bonnie McMaken to Aurora, nicknamed “The City of Lights,” where the Lord was already moving in hearts and churches throughout the city. In 2013, Trevor and Bonnie began praying with other pastors at their current church (Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton) and in Aurora about planting a new church. Over the next 18 months, the Lord brought together a team of people with a heart for the city of Aurora and seeing the heavenly city—the true City of Light—here on earth.
After much prayer, we began gathering together at Nancy Hill Elementary as City of Light in the fall of 2015. You can hear more about our story and mission by RSVP-ing for one of our regular Welcome Lunches.
City of Light is a church that is fully evangelical, fully sacramental, and full of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the power of Jesus to transform our lives, families, and communities through his church empowered by the Spirit.
Our faith is summarized in the words of the ancient Creeds (like the Nicene Creed) understood in their plain and historic sense and in the Jerusalem Declaration (read below under "Our Anglican Family"). To be an Anglican isn’t to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a “Mere Christian,” at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
While those leading and serving must affirm these basic tenets of faith, all are welcome at City of Light—doubters, skeptics, the curious, the burned-out—to join us and explore what the Bible teaches and how we practice it together.
We worship together on Sunday around the Word (the Bible) and Table (Communion).
We journey together through the church calendar of feasts and fasts, sabbaths, and seasons.
We give generously of our time and money from our hearts.
We love and serve our neighbors and neighborhoods.
We partner together in following Jesus as disciple-makers and inviting others to follow him.
Our Sunday gatherings include ancient liturgy with fresh expressions in beautiful arts and music that center around the Word (the Bible) and the Table (Communion). Our worship life together is shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, a collection of ancient prayers and practices saturated with Scripture.
We have City Kids Children's ministry for infants - 5th grade for the first half of the gathering, though children of all ages are always welcome in our service, where we read and hear the Word of God. Then the children join us for the second part of the service where we gather around the Table together. Read more about City Kids here.
We sing, read, and pray in English with parts of the service in Spanish.
We are so glad to be a part of the Aurora community and to be able to join with others churches in Aurora in loving and serving our city.
Why We Love Aurora
Father Trevor McMaken is the pastor of City of Light and is passionate about the light of Jesus shining in our hearts, homes, and city of Aurora. He and his wife Bonnie have three children: Nora, Finn, Gus, and Wells and live in a 101 year-old home next to Blackhawk Park. In their spare time, they enjoy writing and performing music, large Sabbath breakfasts, and exploring the banks of the Fox River. He graduated from Wheaton College in 2007 with a music composition degree and from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2011 with a Masters of Divinity degree.
As pastor of City of Light, Trevor leads the staff team, clergy team, and Parish Council as well as being accountable to both the council and the Bishop of the Midwest Anglican Diocese, Stewart Ruch III.
Email - trevor@cityoflightanglican.org
Pastor Bonnie McMaken is the arts and communication pastor at City of Light. She loves the way that honest art, music, and beauty can lead us into life-transforming encounters with Jesus. She graduated from Wheaton College in 2007 with a degree in Christian Formation and minor in music. Prior to serving as the Worship Pastor at City of Light, Bonnie has worked as a writer, marketer, and editor in the non-profit sector.
They have three children: Nora, Finn, Gus, and Wells and live in a 101 year-old home next to Blackhawk Park. In their spare time, they enjoy writing and performing music, large Sabbath breakfasts, and exploring the banks of the Fox River.
Email - bonnie@cityoflightanglican.org
Deacon Casey Solgos has attended City of Light since our first prayer service in Aurora. Though he is relatively new to the Anglican tradition, he has followed Jesus most of his life. After attending Bible college in Minneapolis and graduate school at the University of Minnesota, he married Erika. He is the father of Therese, Evelea, Sitota, and Carter, and teaches senior English courses at Metea Valley High School. Deacon Casey has committed his life to promoting the glory of God by serving God's people; he serves City of Light by assisting Fr. Trevor with pastoral care and by providing occasional preaching/teaching.
Email — casey@cityoflightanglican.org
Brittany Yeager is the City Kids Pastor at City of Light. Brittany grew up in the Fox Valley and came to faith in Christ during her high school years. Her family began attending Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton in 2013, and it was there that Brittany and her husband David felt a call to help plant City of Light. She has been serving in children’s ministry since its first days.
Brittany has a degree in Elementary Education and experience teaching grades K-12 both overseas and as a bilingual teacher in West Chicago. It was these multicultural experiences that ignited a desire to be part of a multiethnic church, and she is excited to see how God is at work in that way at City of Light. Brittany has a passion for hospitality, teaching, prayer, and families. As City Kids pastor, Brittany’s desire is to walk alongside young families, to encourage & equip them as they cultivate a “first church” – at home – that they might grow in their worship & love for Christ.
Brittany and her husband David have four children and live in Batavia. In their free time they can be found at concerts or thrift stores and are happiest sharing a good meal while connecting with friends and neighbors.
Mark Meyers is the Worship Pastor at City of Light. He was born into a family who loved Jesus and ministry and eventually studied theology at Wheaton College. While studying abroad in the summer of his sophomore year, he was gripped afresh with the beauty and mystery of Jesus’ church—his body and bride. He and his wife Charlotte live in Aurora with their daughter, Talia. They enjoy camping, visiting the Art Institute in Chicago, playing music together, and anything that involves hosting or cooking for friends. He is currently studying for his M.Div from Fuller Seminary. He also serves on staff in Church of the Resurrection’s youth ministry.
Email — mark@cityoflightanglican.org
Anne Hirstein — Anne has been a lifelong Anglican, growing up at Church of the Resurrection and helping plant Church of the Redeemer. She has always loved the combination of reverence for God and intimacy with Him that she has encountered in her Anglican experiences. After marrying Jordan in 2018, it became clear that God had plans for them to find a new church home as a couple. They attended City of Light in 2019 a few months after getting married; they were seeking a place where they could be a part of a multicultural ministry and focus on serving the community. They were immediately thrilled to find this in City of Light and see how God had provided a new home for them.
Anne and Jordan were excited to move to Aurora last summer and find new ways to be a part of the community. Anne is a high school ESL teacher at Oswego East High School and is continually blessed to be able to work with a diverse group of students from many different countries and backgrounds. She is grateful for the ways she has already had the opportunity to serve at City of Light including on the Regathering Team, Welcome Team, Summer Ministry Team, and as a small group leader with Jordan.
Sue Omanson — Sue and her husband Rick were part of the church planting team from Church of the Resurrection that started City of Light. They have now seen the Lord bless City of Light with the same joy, love, beauty, healing, and renewal that they experienced at Church of the Resurrection. Sue loves to encourage and pray for others and show hospitality whenever possible. She and Rick have participated in and led small groups throughout their church experience. She also serves on the worship team, using her passion for music and for worshiping the Lord in song with others.
Sue grew up in the Episcopal Church in NJ but it was through the outreach of students in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in college that she was able to understand more about Jesus and put her faith and trust in him. She met Rick in graduate school in Minnesota and they now have three grown daughters and three grandchildren. Sue works for the Naperville Park District in public relations and grant writing and is thankful for a fun and interesting job that the Lord provided a bit later in life, after staying home with her girls for 15 years.
Karla Torres-Ferrer — Karla was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was raised in a Christian family. She moved with her family to Florida when she was 9 years old and lived there until moving to Wheaton in 2001 to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology at Wheaton College. She has felt called to ministry with the underserved and marginalized and has worked at Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) as a psychologist for the past 14 years. She is passionate about mentoring women and training future Christian psychologists, and so remains at LCHC on a part-time basis while raising her 3 children. Karla was part of Church of the Resurrection since 2011, and found it to be a sanctuary of transformation and deep healing, especially during the tough ministry years of serving as director. She and her husband Fernando both share a passion for building community and hosted a Resurrection small group for several years.
In mid October 2020 they felt a clear leading to relocate to Aurora to become part of City of Light as an answer to prayer to be part of a community where they could plug in their Hispanic culture and Spanish language. Two months later they were unloading their moving truck in Aurora, humbled by the crowd of COL family that came to help, welcome, and feed them. There has not been a day since moving to Aurora and joining COL that they do not feel the favor of God in this new season. The Torres de Ferrers have felt so warmly received by and so quickly incorporated into the COL family, that Karla remarks that it has felt more like "home" than any other since the day she left Puerto Rico.
John Wallbaum — John has been attending City of Light since he and his family moved back to their hometown of Aurora in 2018. He grew up in the faith and his testimony consists of looking back to see how God uses so many different people, places, and churches to reveal Himself to his followers. In Virginia in 2012, God led John to an Anglican church plant where he learned how beautifully the Anglican liturgy can guide us in worship. That is one of the things he still loves about City of Light. John is married to Grace and is a stay-at-home Dad to his two sons. He is also a member of the CityKids team at church. In both his parenting and volunteering, John loves to see kids learn (about math or sports or best of all, about God's love). He likes how City of Light provides opportunities for adults and children to worship together. He is excited to see where God will lead City of Light in the next few years.
Cory Whitehead — Cory was part of the City of Light launch team and was thrilled to see the Holy Spirit's work in bringing a new church plant to Aurora. He moved to the Aurora area in 2000 after growing up in northern Indiana and graduating from Huntington University. He has two-plus decades of experience in marketing, product development, and, most recently, fundraising as the Executive Director of Mission Advancement at Christianity Today. Cory has served the community through mentoring youth, Kids Hope, and ESL, and enjoys serving on Sunday teams, too. Cory lives on the Near Eastside of Aurora and is always up for spending time in the city's downtown, so do not hesitate to ask to grab coffee or a meal with him.
Bishop Stewart Ruch III is the pastor of pastors in our family of churches across Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. Stewart is married to Katherine, and they have six children. Their first love and passion is raising their children and developing their family as a “domestic church."
Together they lead Church of the Resurrection, where they marvel at the move of God they have been swept up in for the last 25 years. One of Stewart's ministry passions is raising up leaders and church planters. In 2013, Resurrection sent out their fifth church plant, Immanuel Anglican Church and in 2015 its sixth church plant, City of Light Anglican Church.
In September 2013, Stewart was consecrated Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest (ACNA), and has a vision to see a Revival of Word and Sacrament infused by the Holy Spirit in the Upper Midwest.
Stewart loves running; reading novels, biographies, and leadership books; and spending as much time as possible in forests and streams with his children.
Read Bishop Stewart’s bio here.
As Anglicans, we’re part of a family from around Chicagoland and around the world. We were sent by Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton and are a part of the Upper Midwest Diocese of the Anglican Church in North America and a member of GAFCON—a global movement of millions of Anglicans worldwide.
As Anglicans, we’re part of a family from around Chicagoland and around the world. We were sent by Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton and are a part of the Upper Midwest Diocese of the Anglican Church in North America and a member of GAFCON—a global movement of millions of Anglicans worldwide.
Together with our global Anglican family, we affirm the Jerusalem Declaration of our historic faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit that was written at the first GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem in 2008:
1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.
3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
7. We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.
8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.
11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.
14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.