Ascension Church News: Mission

Susan Jenks, a talented quilter and parishioner at Ascension Church, recently donated her collection of quilt fabric, books and ten beautiful quilt tops to the Quilt Guild at Ascension. The guild has already identified several quilt tops which they are going to complete this year for graduating high school seniors. The guild will also be using fabric and quilting books donated by Susan for making other senior quilts and a quilt for the church fund-raising event, Bagpipes and Bonfires, for fall 2013. The guild has evaluated the gift received and estimates the value of the gift to be $2,000. The guild members would like to thank Susan for her very generous gift to the guild and Ascension Church. Bless You, Susan!

Quilt Tops by Susan Jenks

submitted by Kathy Widin, Chair, Ascension Quilt Guild

Guild Members: Aggie Sewall, quilt material

Vicki Kramer, Karen Thole, Karen Monsen, Lynn Foster, Brenda Hoffman, Joy Gerard, Barb Kelley, Brenda Doneux, Nancy Austin, Peggy Breed, Nance Anders, Andrea Johnson and Kathy Widin

Article by Kristin Klemetsrud

Our Community Kitchen launched its second year in June of 2012. Twice weekly, donation-based breakfasts continue to draw a diverse crowd of seniors, families, merchants who meet to discuss civic items, or study groups holding weekly discussions and debates. While attendance has been diminished somewhat while construction continues to make parking a challenge, team leaders have spent some of this time crafting a long-range strategic plan for OCK.

With expertise from parishioner Julie Luna, Diane Rollie, Sara Morrison & Kristin Klemetsrud worked hard to put a mission and vision plan in place and are primed to lead OCK to achieve the goal of defining and creating a healthy "food loop". The experience of eating encompasses a great many things besides the simple act of feeding oneself. Our Community Kitchen's goal is to build community while sharing the important aspects of growing, teaching, feeding and how they create this complete and inclusive experience.

More than ever, OCK is striving to create community partnerships. Throughout the summer resident farmer Sara Morrison offered "farm & field" experience to local youth who were able to share in planting and harvesting the garden bounty from Sara's CSA farm. In September OCK will collaborate with local business Alfresco Casual Living to launch a new product line and will incorporate local produce while sampling and interfacing with residents and visitors. They have resumed preparing the Ascension choir suppers, offering youth choir members a healthy supper each Wednesday evening as they gather post rehearsal in the parish hall.

They are working to collaborate with Valley Outreach in offering community classes focusing on nutrition and easy kitchen tips, and are already designing a plan to coordinate efforts with educators at SAHS to include introduction-to-basic- kitchen-skills classes at the school once per month within the Transition program - but hope to work on expanding the scope of this programming to include mainstream students as well.

North Hill Community Garden Members gather

to celebrate Birthdays at Our Community Kitchen

Fundraising will be important if OCK is to become a self-sustaining organization and plans are forming to offer a fall author event and book signing in partnership with Valley Bookseller and River Market. And a possible Farm-to-Table Dinner gala is being considered for next spring/summer.

Noted food writer MFK Fisher observes, "There is communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk." Our Community Kitchen is a place that offers so much more than just a handout.

The morning crew hard at work

"It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied .... and it is all one."

M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Please join us in the kitchen, help us to teach, to share, to commune with one another and to create a community that knows that these hungers exists and strives to fill them.

Volunteers are always needed.

Please contact Diane Rollie, Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator at 651.428.0300 and let her know which of your talents you would like to share.

Article submitted by: Kristin Klemetsrud

Photo's from Our Community Kitchen's Facebook page

*Xavier Weston 'in the field' and Micaela, Elena Luna & Mae Hovelson 'in the kitchen'. Susie Danielson and Daphne Corbett with her children at the birthday celebration table.

Many Blessings at Ascension!

Buff blessing Charlie Finn O'Reilly's backpack on Sunday. We blessed 37 backpacks!

blessing

John Kurtz getting his pack blessed,

blessing of Gaby's

...and Gabi Danielson getting her blessing as well.

Please remember: lector

Sunday, September 23, Lector and Eucharistic Ministers Training, following 10 a.m. service: All those who serve in ministry of Word and Table are invited to renew and refresh our work. Lunch provided. Newcomers welcome.

Sunday, October 7, Usher and Greeter Training, following 10 a.m. service: All those who serve as ushers and greeters are invited to attend a training to renew and refresh our work. Lunch provided. Newcomers welcome.

Our Supportive Housing Program families have some requests-a computer, Queen or a Full size bed, and Queen size bedding for an older teen girl (black and bright colors like purple and lime green are her favorite colors). Please call Cindy at 439-2641 if you can help with any of the above requests.
Thank you for the donation of a TV!

Jon Francis Race
this Saturday!

Come be part of the fun!

The Jon Francis Half-Marathon, an 8K and the PowerUp 1K Fun Run will be held this Saturday, September 22, 2012. Start, finish and a Family Fun Fair will take place at Square Lake Park. We could use some Ascension volunteers at one of the rest stops on the race.

Read more about the race.

The T-shirt order went in.

Our models will be wearing them when they are done,

and the next order will be
taken soon! Thanks! Katie

MN United Conversation Drive- Stillwater

We are calling to talk to either known supporters or undecided voters. Our calls to supporters are to invite them to a conversation drive in order to build the largest grassroots campaign in Minnesota history. We call undecided voters to have conversations with them about why marriage matters and ask them questions about where they stand on the issue. This is a voter conversation drive unlike any you've ever done before! Each conversation drive includes a training on how to talk to either supporters or undecided voters.

This is the most important work you can be doing at this point!

For more information or to sign up now,
contact dan@mnunited.org

Every Monday and Tuesday night, from now until the election!

Location:

Office of Ascension Episcopal Church, Manwaring

215 N 4th St N

Stillwater, MN, 55082

Start time: 6:30pm

End time: 9:30pm

Hosted by: Minnesotans United for All Families

Save The Date: The Parents' Summit

On Saturday, September 29, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. all parents of children ages zero to 8th grade are invited to come together to renew the vision for our children at Ascension. The Feely's have graciously offered their home for the meeting.

Our facilitator will be Melissa Parker Lindsay, a St. Paul native and Executive Director of the Minnesota Zoo Foundation. Passionate about serving her community and skilled in strategic planning, Melissa has also served as executive director for the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and Voyageur Outward Bound School. With her husband Lynn, she has raised their two sons and knows the challenges and joys of helping children tend their spiritual and emotional lives.

Please plan to come to this important meeting. You are the church, and what you want for your children at Ascension matters. You will be setting the broad vision for our children's program and be able to contribute specific outcomes that you hope for your children.

If you cannot come on Saturday, September 29, please plan to attend the secondary meeting, Monday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the parish hall.

We would like your RSVP to which meeting you can come to.
Please e-mail or call Mindy at mindy@aechurch.org or 651-439-2609.

From the Office:

We have just printed our new Fall Directories and they are available in the Sanctuary on the shelf behind the choir loft. If you see any corrections, please notify the office at office@aechurch.org.

Soon we will be posting the weekly bulletin so those who would like to download to their I-Pad or tablet may do so.

The Ascension office will be closed on Fridays. Office hours are: Mon, Tues & Thurs.; 10-4 and Wed.; 10-2. Thank you! Nance Anders

Share your Garden!
With all the summer sun and rain, is your garden overflowing with beautiful vegetables and flowers? Why not share some of God's abundance with your fellow Ascensionites, especially those who are no longer able to garden? Thanks!

A Pastoral Care Team Tea will be offered on Saturday, October 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon in the Parish Hall for current Pastoral Care Team members, Healing Touch Team members, and anyone contemplating being on the Pastoral Care Team or Healing Touch Team. Please RSVP by 10/1 for the tea.

To RSVP, or for questions, call Andrea Johnson, parish nurse, 651-439-3544, or email andrea@aechurch.org

Call Deacon Mary Jo Feely for questions about the Healing Touch Team, 651-439-9001, or email revmaryjo@gmail.com

Time to sign up for Yoga by this Sunday!

Yogadevotion

Dr. Lyne Seppala will teach an eight-class session of Yogadevotion beginning Tuesday, September 25 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall (No class on Election Day.)

Minimum of ten pre-registered students is required to hold this session. Appropriate for beginners or those with previous yoga experience. Pre-registrations are required by Sunday, September 23. Pre-register by writing your check for $55 to "Ascension" with "Yogadevotion" in the memo line and give it to Laura Weston, drop it off at the church office or place it in the offering basket by 9/23.

Child care available on a drop-in basis for $7 per child per class. For questions, call Laura Weston, 651-430-9028.

T'ai Chi

T'ai Chi begins Tuesday, September 25 from 2:00 to 3:15 p.m. in the Parish Hall. Parishioner Allan LaValier will teach the Yang style of T'ai Chi, 24 forms, in this twelve-class session (no class on Election Day.)

Allan has studied T'ai Chi with Ted Tang in Fargo, N.D. and has taught T'ai Chi at the Compass Center and other locations in the St. Croix Valley as well as in Grand Rapids, MN. Cost is $75 for adults and $60 for children.

Register at the first class or pre-register with your check to "Ascension" with "T'ai Chi" in the memo line. Appropriate for any age, beginners as well as those with previous T'ai Chi experience. For questions, call Allan LaValier or Lynn Raarup, 651-351-0539.

Blessing of the Animals Service
on Sept. 30th

In the Fall, Episcopal churches throughout the country observe the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi with the Blessing of the Animals. The patron saint of animals believed that the light of God was perfectly reflected in all of nature and nowhere is His essence better revealed than in the unconditional love, companionship and devotion of the pets we hold dear to our hearts. This day then is for creatures - great and small - to receive God's blessing, a blessing they so richly deserve. Please bring your pet to receive a blessing Sunday, Sept. 30th at the 10:00 service!

...And a special offer for that special pet of yours:

Episcopal Shield pet collars and leashes will be available to order on Sunday, Sept. 30th for only $10 each leash/collar. (see photo below)

Please make your checks payable to Ascension. I will also accept orders via email at k.keller@aechurch.org
collars and leashes

The Caim meditation and contemplative prayer group is planning a 2 day retreat to the Episcopal House of Prayer at St. Johns Abbey, Collegeville, MN, Friday, October 12, through Sunday, (departure time as convenient), October 14, 2012. We would like to invite anyone else interested to join us. Every year we look forward to this quiet time of meditation in the oratory, attendance at services with the abbey monks, hiking the beautiful grounds of St. Johns or pursuing our creative interests. In the evening we gather for wine, good food and spiritual discussion. For cost and further information contact Sally Giese. sally.giese@att.net

Cardboard Box City to take place

at MN. State Fair Grounds

Project Home and Families Moving Forward invite youth groups, congregations, community groups and organizations to:

Sleep Out

(in a temporary dwelling: a box or a tent),

Rock Out

(the band Sheltered Reality will perform live) and help us

Knock Out Family Homelessness

at our Cardboard Box City event
to be held
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012
(MEA weekend)
at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds.

Mindy has invited the 6th through 12th grade to go. Anyone else is welcome to come along and join in on the fun! Contact Mindy to find out how! mindy@aechurch.org

Sponsored by the St. Paul Area Council of Churches.
For more info: click here

See the current Lay Server Schedule

View the current guidelines for Food donation for Our Community Kitchen

Sergius

Abbot Of Holy Trinity
1392
Sergius

Sergius is a Russian national hero and an example of Russian spirituality at it's best.

Sergius was born around 1314, the son of a farmer. When he was twenty, he and his brother began to live as hermits in a forest near Moscow. Others joined them in what became the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, a center for the renewal of Russian Christianity. Pilgrims came from all Russia to worship and to receive spiritual instruction, advice, and encouragement. The Russians were at the time largely subservient to the neighboring (non-Christian) Tatar (or Tartar) people. Sergius rallied the people behind Prince Dimitri Donskoi, who defeated the Tatars in 1380 and established an independent Russia.

Sergius was a gentle man, of winning personality. Stories told of him resemble those of Francis of Assisi, including some that show that animals tended to trust him. He had the ability to inspire in men an intense awareness of the love of God, and a readiness to respond in love and obedience. He remained close to his peasant roots. One contemporary said of him, "He has about him the smell of fir forests." To this day, the effect of his personality on Russian devotion remains considerable.