Category: Newsletter

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” — John 15:12

Join us Sunday at 11 a.m. via Zoom to hear the Gospel read (according to John), proclaimed (by the Rev. Meredith Ward), and sung (by the Ascension Choir, through the music of John Ireland).

During the Sunday Forum that follows the service, we’ll be discussing the introduction and first two chapters of the new book The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community, by the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers.

Worship online with us Sunday at 11 a.m. via Zoom, followed by fellowship and catching up during our virtual coffee hour. Plus, you can now reserve a pew for in-person Eucharists on Wednesdays; just go to ascensionnyc.org/reservations to sign up to receive an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.

Join us for worship online Sunday at 11 a.m. via Zoom. We are delighted to welcome the Rev. Dr. Claudio Carvalhaes as our guest preacher and forum leader at Ascension. Dr. Carvalhaes, ordained in the Presbyterian Church, is Associate Professor of Worship at Union Theological Seminary. He works at the intersection of liturgy, justice and the arts. Two years ago he led a service at UTS that became known as “Plantgate,” in which participants confessed to plants their sins against the natural world. To commemorate Earth Day, in the forum following the service we will explore how our liturgies and theology help or hinder our connections with the whole community of creation and our work of ecological love and justice.

We continue our celebration of Christ’s resurrection at 11 a.m. Sunday, via Zoom; please join us! (Pro tip: Sign on 5 minutes early for preludial music.)
 
We’re also worshiping online at 5:30 p.m. every weekday evening with the Office of Evening Prayer. (If you don’t have a prayer book at home to join in, use this link; psalms are here.) And we’re resuming our midweek, in-person Eucharist services at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, starting April 28! For now, seating is limited to 20 worshipers at a time, so that people may be safely distanced. Use this link to reserve a pew for one of the upcoming Wednesday Eucharists. Alleluia!

Please join us for worship online or by phone this Second Sunday of Eastertide. Preludial music — three pieces by baroque composer François Couperin this week — begins at 10:45 a.m., followed by a service of scripture, hymns, an anthem from Handel’s Messiah, and a sermon to be preached by our seminarian, Linda Brandt.
 

The Lord is risen indeed! Allelulia!
 
Happy Easter! Our service again this year takes place via Zoom. Preludial choral music begins at 10:45 a.m.; the service itself begins at 11 a.m. Please join us as we celebrate the resurrection, rebirth and renewal of Easter, spring, and an increasingly vaccinated city!

The Great Vigil — Easter’s equivalent of Christmas’s Eve — was the ancient gathering of believers in the hours of darkness to hear scripture and offer prayer. Initially a night-long service ending at dawn, this practice of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light. Easter was the primary baptismal baptismal occasion for the early church, and still today, whether we celebrate a baptism during the Vigil or not, we reaffirm our own baptismal vows after hearing the record of God’s saving deeds in history. In this way, we further link the meanings of Christ’s dying and rising to our understanding of our own baptisms.

To commemorate Good Friday, please join us online, via Zoom, at noon. The rector writes: “We invite you to bring a cross with you to the service. This may be a cross that you already use for prayer, or one that you make, paint or draw for this day. This past year has been so full of extraordinary occasions that show us the cross: agonized suffering, cruel injustice, helpless vigils, unspeakable courage, self-giving sacrifice. As we contemplate all that we have lived through in the shadow of Jesus’ Passion, may the crosses we bring remind us of the depth of God’s love for us and for the whole world.”

At 7 p.m. on Maundy Thursday, we will gather online via Zoom to remember Jesus’ last night before his crucifixion. The rector invites us, in our own homes and in our own ways, to then spend part of our evening following the service keeping watch with Christ. “Light a candle, read a psalm, perhaps open your journal. Sit in quiet. Ask Jesus to be present to you and bring all your griefs, struggles and hopes for yourself and the world into that space.”
 
And please join us for the rest of the week for our Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Great Vigil and Easter services, as well. See the complete schedule here.

The rector writes: “The liturgies of this week speak to some of the deepest, most difficult experiences of human life. They invite us to walk with Jesus from Palm Sunday hosannas to the crowd calling for a lynching; from the intimacy of the upper room to the betrayal, dereliction and God-forsakenness of Good Friday; from the anguish, and silence of death to the wonder and joy of Easter Day.”
 
Please join us for our Sunday service for Palm Sunday, March 28 at 11 a.m., via Zoom, when we start to share the wondrous gift of Holy Week with its readings, characters and moments. And please join us for the rest of this week, Monday through Easter, by joining our different services marking the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.