On May 20, 2018 we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost by hearing the story in many languages, a baptism and an inspiring sermon by our Rector, The Rev. Elizabeth Maxwell and music from the wonderful Ascension choir. You can listen to her message with this link https://tinyurl.com/y8sop4ph.
As part of the Year of Lamentation, join the diocese in commemorating the presence of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Thursday, May 17, 2018 from 7-10 pm. Dr. King preached at our Cathedral on May 17, 1967. The Diocesan Festival Choir will participate in this liturgy. Performers include the following: Paul Winter (world
Join with the Church of the Ascension, the Church of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy and others from around the Diocese of New York on Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 5PM for a very special Evensong service. The service will be one of remembrance for those who died at the Pulse mass shooting June 12, 2016. We will remember all of the lives lost,
Please join us for our parish feast day at 7:00 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2018, which is celebrated with a festal Eucharist, baptism and the Ascension choir. The service will be followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. We welcome all as we celebrate both the Ascension of Jesus and our life together at The Church of the Ascension.
I am writing this reflection in early January, in the middle of a snowstorm. We are still celebrating Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and the feast of the Epiphany is coming up- the arrival of the wise ones led by a star from far away, bringing strange gifts for a newborn: gold symbolizing royalty, frankincense for adoration, and myrrh to anoint a body for burial.
When I was a child, maybe seven or so, I was in court. The judge asked me if I knew what a lie was and I answered calmly, with absolute certainty, “Yes. It’s a mortal sin.” He asked the question several times and I began to wonder, with some impatience, if he knew something I didn’t. Later, detectives said they were sorry, but “It’s
Today, Maundy Thursday, is by far my favorite service of the year. The way we replicate the act of having our feet washed, the stripping of the altar, and the setting of the reserve sacrament in the side chapel for the overnight watch takes place. It is a service that I feel closest to what it must have been like in the earliest days
The first three scriptures appear to have conflict as the common thread. Isaiah 50:8 sums it up with an aggressive tone of confrontation (“Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me”), while Psalm 70 asserts that those who seek my life will be shamed and dishonored. But in John 13:21-32 Jesus takes a different
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 “While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. John 12:36 The cosmos
Over the years I have seen the struggle for maintaining social safety nets and I have personally wrestled with my own responsibilities to those in need around me. Time and again I have heard “Christians” say we shouldn’t bother with safety nets or food programs because “Jesus says, ‘You always have the poor with you.”One morning I found myself mulling this over and I