Savannah Guthrie Admits 'Deep Disappointment With God' Over Missing Mum Nancy Guthrie

Savannah Guthrie used an Easter message broadcast by Good Shepherd New York on Sunday, 5 April, to speak publicly about the strain of faith and the disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, telling viewers in Lower Manhattan that there have been moments of 'deep disappointment with God' as the family waits for answers.

She told worshippers that while Easter is supposed to be about 'sunshine and joy and hope' and 'rebirth and second chances and new life and fresh starts'.

Savannah Guthrie Faces Easter In The Middle Of Uncertainty

In her message, Savannah Guthrie tried to make sense of that tension by returning to the core Christian story she has grown up with. She spoke about the gap between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the quiet, largely unexamined stretch of time when, in Christian belief, Jesus lay in the grave.

'Suddenly, I remembered the grave. I remembered three days in the grave. No one talks much about that. We focus mostly on Easter,' she said, reflecting on how celebrations usually skip straight from crucifixion to resurrection.

'We cut to the happy ending and the joy of Sunday morning. And yes, we do observe the Friday before, the agony of crucifixion. We mourn by candlelight that darkest night. But after Jesus died, after he breathed his last, what did he actually know?'

Guthrie told the congregation she has been wondering whether Jesus 'really ever experienced this particular wound that I feel, this grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not knowing, of uncertainty and confusion and answers withheld'.

She described 'moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment' and suggested that 'for most of us, there will come a time in our life when these feelings hold sway'.

At the same time, Guthrie did not renounce her beliefs. She insisted that doubt and faith can sit alongside each other. 'We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death. But standing here today, I have to tell you, there are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away,' she said, before arguing that acknowledging 'loss, pain, and, yes, death' is part of truly celebrating resurrection.

'It is the darkness that makes this morning's light so magnificent, so blindingly beautiful. It is all the brighter because it is so desperately needed.'

Savannah Guthrie Keeps Faith While Nancy Guthrie Search Continues

At one point of her message, she tried to imagine what Jesus might have thought between death and resurrection, 'On the cross, he cried out, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" That is the anguished cry of someone who does not know the answers. Where did his soul and his spirit go in those days in between? And what was he thinking? Did he think his time in the grave would be a day or two, or 1,000 years? In the grave, does his agony seem indefinite to him? That torment of uncertainty, the way indefinite pain can feel eternal? Perhaps he did know this feeling after all.'

Behind these reflections is a case that investigators still describe as unresolved and deeply troubling. Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her Arizona home at the end of January, with one account specifying 31 January and another stating 1 February.

Surveillance footage from her Nest doorbell camera, cited in reports, shows a masked intruder approaching her front door on the night she is believed to have been taken. Officials have said evidence suggests she did not leave voluntarily and may have been kidnapped.

Law enforcement in Arizona, joined by the FBI, have appealed repeatedly for information. The Guthrie family and federal agents have offered what has been described as a significant reward for credible leads, urging anyone with knowledge of Nancy's movements or the masked visitor to come forward.

Despite this, there are currently no suspects, no public indication of a breakthrough and, as one account notes starkly, no proof of life.

Savannah Guthrie has stayed largely out of the studio while all this unfolds, with her return to Today set for a Monday that will mark the 65th day since her mother's disappearance, according to one report.

Guthrie conceded her reflections might seem 'too dark a message to share on Easter morning'. She closed with a note of stubborn hope, saying she could still 'feel the sunshine' and imagine 'a bright vision of the day when heaven and earth pass away because they are one'.

'I celebrate too. I still believe. And so I say with conviction: Happy Easter,' she told her fellow parishioners.