Meet the Leadership
Father Christian Ruch
Rector
Christian serves as the Rector of Church of the Cross and his responsibilities include preaching; providing pastoral care; and helping implement the vision and mission of the church. He also serves the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, in partnership with his wife Molly, through catalyzing church planting and helping strengthen leadership development. He is originally from Indiana, but has called Minnesota home since moving here in 2003 to help start Church of the Cross. He loves spending time with Molly and their four “young adult” children He also enjoys reading, being outdoors, traveling to new places, and watching Jeopardy.
Deacon Joel Bascom
Pastor of Connecting & Equipping
A Southern California native, Joel and met his lovely wife Stephanie when they were students at Biola University. He stays connected to his SoCal roots through his family there and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joel went on to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he earned a Master's degree in Old Testament. He and his family have called Minnesota home for 20 years and love exploring the North Shore whenever they can! They make their home in the Nokomis neighborhood of South Minneapolis. He worked as a manager at Trader Joe's for 16 years before coming on staff at Church of the Cross in 2020. Joel loves teaching, leading teams, and doing his best to make sure our building is getting the attention it needs. He also loves making sure people have the opportunity to make connections at Cross. He has a daughter (Corrie) and two sons (Jack and Wesley) and they love movies, music, baseball and pizza.
Father Peter Berg
Executive Pastor, Youth and Adult Ministries
As the Executive Pastor, Peter's responsibilities include overseeing and supporting the staff team, facilitating the outworking of our Mission, Values, and Calls to Action, overseeing our membership and Adult Education work, and preaching. This is all a great gift to Peter, because it means he gets to work with Cross's incredible staff team, and have meaningful opportunities to teach about our faith and practices. Peter received his B.S. in Youth Ministry in 2006 and his M.A. in Theological Studies in 2008. He and his wife, Elizabeth, began attending Church of the Cross in 2009. Peter began ministering on staff in 2011, was ordained a deacon in April 2016, and was ordained as a priest in September 2017. Aside from being with his wife, two sons and daughter, Peter enjoys reading, playing video games and board games, especially when he can do so with friends.
Annie Birtcil
Office Manager
I grew up on a farm with wonderful freedoms, always a pair of dogs to get lost with and several cats who frequently multiplied. Today I love watching everything move in the backyard and have no pets aside from what God brings by; they are either wild or belong to a neighbor. I dream of landscape designs and implementing them step-by-step.
So how did I end up running an office? Wife and motherhood helped hone multitasking; homeownership developed joy in organization & maintenance; sitting behind a desk has always delighted me; I love to talk on the phone and write through a keyboard. After the usual education, I followed my Dad’s suggestion of trying secretarial school. To my mild surprise, I took to it. All this, along with the gift of responsibility, has prepared me for this amazing work as Office Manager at Cross. God has given me a precious gift of loving & serving Him here.
Andrea Lang
Pastor of Children’s & Family Ministry
Andrea Lang and her family have called Cross home since in 2007, her 3 children (now in high school and college) have grown up in our parish. She accepted the joyful call to be the Children and Families Pastor in 2017 and in 2025 completed training to become a certified Connected Families coach. With a passion and energy for people, Andrea believes there is no higher calling than shepherding and making spaces for children to weekly engage with the Word, the company of the Holy Spirit, and the Body of Christ. She also loves playing her oboe, email, soup, roller skating, hot beverages and warm socks. Her husband Matt (an optical engineer) is a faithful partner in ministry, you will see him tending our AV board, making music, leading 4-6th grade and co-facilitating parent groups.
Andene O’Neil
Pastor of Worship Arts & Communications
As a young girl growing up in the cornfields and rural woods of southeastern Minnesota, Andene was innately curious about music, art, history, theology, and ministry. Her curiosity turned into a passion and a calling, drawing her to Bethel and onto Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston where she earned an M.Div. and a Th.M. studying these very things. While out east, she worked as the Director of Worship at Gordon College honing her love of discipleship and worship arts ministry. It was here when she was first drawn to the rich worship life of the Anglican Church.
Eventually, she felt called to return to her Midwestern roots where she met her husband Sean and began working at Church of the Cross. These days they live with their three children and two dogs in an old home near enough woods to make suburbia feel a little wild. As a family they love to wander in the woods, to play music and sports of all kinds, to fill their home with the aromas of cozy meals, and to read good books by fires.
Deacon Cheryl Witham
Pastor of Formation
God began preparing Cheryl’s heart to be Anglican in 1989 when she and her family lived in England for two years. Coming to Church of the Cross in 2005 was like coming home. Prompted by a desire to see lives transformed and matured by Christ, she studied spiritual formation at Bethel Seminary and completed a masters of Theology in 2004. After the death of her husband John in 2010, Cheryl was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Church of North America and began to serve on staff at Church of the Cross in 2013. She serves our community through the ministry of prayer, the experience of biblical narrative, small group spiritual formation. Cheryl offers pastoral care and has seen many healed and come to freedom using the model of forgiveness she has written about in a book called The Debt is Paid.
In 2014 Cheryl and Gerard Pierre were married. They minister together in prayer and pastoral care. Their lives are full of love for many; grown children, in-laws and grandchildren (35+), as well as those from our community in Hopkins and around the world. They enjoy travel especially back to France to see family and Mexico to get away from Minnesota winters. People are their passion. They are also really good cooks! The soup is always on!
Vestry
The Vestry is a team of leaders at Church of the Cross who work with our rector, Christian Ruch, in giving oversight to the overall mission and work of the church. Their duties include considering and approving ministry decisions and plans that affect the overall church community, preparing an annual budget, reviewing the financial reports of the church, overseeing the care and stewardship of church assets, and praying regularly for the needs of the church. Those considered for vestry are people who have served at Church of the Cross in various functions and have demonstrated a consistent love and concern for the people of our community.
The current members of the vestry are Madeline Fredin, Jennifer Herther, Matt Huston, Todd Johnson, Lauren Mitchell, Todd Nelson, and John Towner. If you would like to speak to a member of our vestry, please call our church office (952-933-3686) and we will put you in touch with one of them.