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January 24, 2013
Worship & Music
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Annual All-Parish Meeting, Sunday, January 27, 2013
We will celebrate Holy Eucharist one time on Sunday, January 27th at 9:00 a.m. Then at 10:00 a.m. we will gather to elect new vestry members, recap 2012, and hear about new ministry plans for 2013 including our proposed budget. Please bring a Dish to Share afterward for a Potluck and enjoy fellowship together.
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Who is in the Pulpit in Epiphany?
We are celebrating the season after Epiphany with a special Lay Preachers Series. Each Sunday a different member of our congregation preaches at both Eucharists. These preachers represent the wide variety of perspectives and personalities who make up Ascension. They are asking, how do I hear today's readings? What is God saying to us? Come listen this Sunday!  This Sunday's Speaker will be Mary Engler
"I've been a member of Ascension since 1963, and I am a cradle Episcopalian. I've done everything in the church except the Vestry; Sunday School, Kitchen Guild, Altar Guild, Adult Choir, Vacation Bible School and even  Prison Ministry. We would go once a week to the Bayport Prison, and hold a church service with Fr. Phillips for those who 'earned' it by good behavior so they could go to chapel. We served Eucharist to each other and it was very meaningful. The Episcopalian church is all I know, and all I care to know...it's a part of me." |
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CHILDREN'S CHAPEL:
Sunday, Jan. 27th: There is 1 service at 9:00 am on January 27th as we will be having our Annual Meeting. Here is what the children will be offered:
- 8:45-8:55am, meet in Chapel for snacks in Parish Hall
- 8:55-9:15am, break into 2 different classes
- 9:15-9:25am, music with Nancy and then come into church at the sharing of the peace.
Following the service and during the annual meeting, all of the children are invited to come down to the Sunday school rooms for some fun projects.
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Representing Ascension to the Church of Minnesota
Each parish in the Episcopal Church of Minnesota sends lay and clergy delegates to the Annual Convention of the diocese. On Sunday, January 27, at our 2013 Annual Parish Meeting, we will elect new delegates to represent Ascension to the diocese and this Annual Convention, which will be held in St. Paul on September 27-28.
Delegates also attend quarterly meetings of their Mission Area. Ascension belongs to the East Metro Mission Area which includes parishes from much of St. Paul, and from Roseville, White Bear Lake, Hastings, and Afton. These meetings help parishes to share resources and work together to reach out more effectively to the communities in their Mission Area.
If you would like to serve as a delegate, contact the rector, Buff Grace+, at rectorbuff@aechurch.org . For more information, speak with one of the current delegates: Duane Arndt, Linda Francis, Barb Kelly, Vicki Kramer, or Chris Mattera. |
Upcoming Musical Highlights:
Feb. 3rd: Youth Choir
Feb. 10th: Bell Choir
Feb. 17th: Soloist:
Carole Finneran
Carole did her undergraduate work at University of Maryland. She studied vocal performance, government, and politics, graduating in 1990. Continuing on to law school Carole graduated with her JD in 1995. After working in law for 5 years she found she missed music. In 2000 while in the middle of a trial Carole took a morning off to audition for the MN Opera. She has been singing with the MN Opera ever since that 2000 season.
Carole is a mezzo soprano, coming from a line of opera singers on the Italian side of her family.
Though her children do not always like being woken up in the morning with opera music being sung by their Mother, they have inherited a great love for vocal music!
Carole Finneran is a Parishioner at Ascension and her son, Peter, sings in the Ascension Youth Choir.
Feb. 23rd: Youth Music Festival at St. Mark's All are invited to St. Mark's Cathedral at 4pm on Saturday, February 23 to hear 100 choristers from around the state sing the ancient liturgy of Evensong. The Ascension's Youth Choir will be participating in this service, and in the all day music festival. Canon Musician Raymond Johnson will again lead the massed choirs representing 10 churches as they sing music drawn from our Anglican heritage. We are especially excited because this will be the first Festival utilizing the new organ at St. Mark's. Please come and support the next generation of Episcopal choir singers!
*If you would like a sample of the music we'll be singing, click the links to hear the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Geoffrey Burgon (who also wrote music for Dr. Who and "Life of Brian" among others!)
Feb. 24th: Oboe player: Robert McManus
 Photo: Luke Studios Robert McManus was born in Bayport, MN where he currently resides with four cats and his mother. When he's not practicing or teaching the oboe in his studio with its wood burning stove, he enjoys the outdoors and is the volunteer steward of the DNR's St. Croix Savanna Scientific and Natural Area. This includes family land put into permanent conservation easement. The daily task of wrapping and scraping oboe reeds has blossomed into a marginally profitable reed making business. He is also the 2nd oboe/assistant principal oboe of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls, SD. His teachers have included Richard Killmer, Kathryn Greenbank, Rebecca Henderson, Rhadames Angelucci, and Julie Madura. Robert is also a member of Music St. Croix, information about their group and upcoming concert schedule can be found here.
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 Sing me to Heaven
music by Daniel E Gawthrop
* text by Jane Griner
In my heart's sequestered chambers
lie truths stripped of poet's gloss.
Words alone are vain and vacant and my heart is mute.
In response to aching silence
memory summons half heard voices,
and my soul finds primal eloquence
and wraps me in song, wraps me in song.
If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby.
If you would win my heart, sing me a love song.
If you would mourn me and bring me to God, sing me a requiem, sing me to heaven.
Touch in me all love and passion, pain and pleasure,
touch in me grief and comfort, love and passion, pain and pleasure.
Sing me a lullaby, a love song, a requiem.
Love me, comfort me, bring me to God.
Sing me a love song.
Sing me to heaven.
*Sung by the Adult choir on Sunday, January 20th.
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Experience the wonder and mystery of the ancient Choral Evensong - combining medieval offices of Vespers and Compline. Join us as we reflect, meditate, and become embraced by the spirit of God.
Choral Evensongs coming up at St. Mark's Cathedral at 519 Oak Grove, Mpls.:
January 27th from 5-6 pm the Altos, Tenors, Basses of the Cathedral Choir will be highlighted.
February 3rd from 5-6 pm Cathedral Choir
February 10th from 5-6 pm Section Leaders of the Cathedral Choir
Raymond Johnston is the director.
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Cami and Lori Allaire and their
sewing mentor, Kathy Widin and the table runners they both made!
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Peer Ministry Training
Welcome
Listen
Care
Love
When: 7 pm, Friday Jan. 25th - 9 am, Sun Jan 27th
Where: Ascension Episcopal Church (Stillwater)
Cost: $40 - includes lodging, meals and supplies
So What Exactly Is This?
An opportunity for Sr. High teenagers to develop leadership skills to: welcome and include outsiders, put faith into action, learn to really listen, reach out to those in trouble, build healthy relationships, know when and where to ask for help.
How Do I Sign Up? Give your application to Mindy or Buff to sign and they will send it in for you.
Questions? Contact Mindy at 651-439-2609 or mindy@aechurch.org for applications
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Replacement is sought
on the Columbarium Board of Trustees Dick Johnson will be retiring from the board after serving as a valued member since its origin in 2007. We thank him for good counsel and the contributions he has made to the church as a Board member.
We are searching for a replacement to fill the vacancy on the Board. If you would like to be considered, please submit a brief letter of interest to the church office directed to the Columbarium board.
'The Board maintains all columbarium policies, and conducts business dealing with the columbarium including but not limited to: promotion, contracts, site maps, and maintenance. All openings and closings will be handled by the board.'
By the end of February 2013, the Columbarium Board will ask the Vestry to fill the vacancy on the Board. If you have any questions, contact Fr. Buff Grace, Jim Christopherson or any of the columbarium Board members.
Respectfully,
Jim Christopherson
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The transition of the Stillwater Family Resource Center from Episcopal Community Services to Ascension Church has meant uninterrupted services for the many families served, new opportunities for Ascension ministries and outreach to those in need, and more ways that Ascension members and community members can personally get involved.
There will be a volunteer training on Tuesday, January 29th, at 6:30 pm at the Manwaring House for all those interested in volunteering with the Family Resource Center. The training is especially for those interested in becoming a mentor for new families in our Supportive Housing Program but would also be a great training for those interested in volunteering in other ways with the Family Resource Center.
A light supper will be served. Please call Cindy at 439-2641 if you are interested in coming to the training. If you are wondering about the many different ways that you could volunteer with our Family Resource Center, please call.
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New Mom's Group: Meg (Schmolke), Ellie and Josie
Halsten enjoying breakfast with the new Mom's Group.
All are invited, 2nd Tuesday at 9 am of every month!
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Many Voices, One Song: Hindu Enlightenment
As part of a series exploring the wisdom of the world's great sacred traditions, we will explore the Upanishads. Joseph Campbell has called them "the most sublime spiritual writing in history." Find out what some of these passages may hold for us as Christians. Retreat will be led by Martin Lahn and Ward Bauman. The day retreat costs $50, which includes lunch. Time: January 26th from 9 am to 4 pmLocation: House of Prayer in the City 425 Oak Grove Street Minneapolis Phone: 320-363-3293 website or map: http://ehouseofprayer.org/hopcSome of the many other retreats they have coming up: Falling Upward: The Spirit Of Retirement, Feb 23 & 24 Many Voices, One Song: March 2: Buddhist Awakening: A Deeper LookFebruary 16 & April 27: Yoga and ContemplationPlease check out the other highlights on their Events listing of their website!
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Tom Steffen & Friends
Comedy Fundraiser for the RFHS Band
River Falls' own Tom Steffen brings home a sixth super year of live stand-up comedy! 
Tom Steffen (Tom is son of parishioners: John & Kathy Steffen) Sunday February 10th
River Falls H.S. Auditorium -
818 Cemetery Road, River Falls, WI.
Showtime 7 pm Tickets $10 Adults $5 Students
Advance Tickets at the Dish & Spoon Cafe,
208 N Main St. River Falls
Tickets also available at the door
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 Thomas Aquinas
Priest, Friar, and Theologian (28 Jan 1274)
In the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas lived, the works of Aristotle, largely forgotten in Western Europe, began to be available again, partly from Eastern European sources and partly from Moslem Arab sources in Africa and Spain. These works offered a new and exciting way of looking at the world. Many enthusiastic students of Aristotle adopted him quite frankly as as an alternative to Christianity. The response of many Christians was to denounce Aristotle as an enemy of the Christian Faith. A third approach was that of those who tried to hold both Christian and Aristotelian views side by side with no attempt to reconcile the two. Aquinas had a fourth approach. While remaining a Christian, he immersed himself in the ideas of Aristotle, and then undertook to explain Christian ideas and beliefs in language that would make sense to disciples of Aristotle. At the time, this seemed like a very dangerous and radical idea, and Aquinas spent much of his life living on the edge of ecclesiastical approval. His success can be measured by the prevalence today of the notion that of course all Christian scholars in the Middle Ages were followers of Aristotle.
Aristotle is no longer the latest intellectual fashion, but Aquinas's insistence that the Christian scholar must be prepared to meet other scholars on their own ground, to become familiar with their viewpoints, to argue from their premises, has been a permanent and valuable contribution to Christian thought.
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Altar Flowers
If you are interested in sponsoring altar flowers for 2013, please contact Barb Smolik at 651-275-3533 or the office at 651-439-2609 for sign-up. Get your names on the dates you wish before they fill up.
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Ongoing Events
 Please note New Hours for:
Our Community KitchenTuesday and Thursday mornings
8- 10 am @ Ascension's Kitchen and Fellowship Hall.
Come and meet your community and have a delicious breakfast!
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Ongoing Groups:
Scripture Reflection and Prayer GroupFirst & Third Thursdays from 9 - 10:30 am in the Library
Thich Naht Hanh study/meditation group
Thursday nights at 7 pm in Parish Hall
Zen style Meditation group
Saturday mornings at 7 am in Small Chapel
Healing Touch
2nd Saturday every month in the Sanctuary at 9 am
Youth Choir Wednesday nights at 4:45 pmfor more info contact Nancy Whipkey @ 651-439-2609Bell ChoirWednesday nights at 6:15 - 7:15 pm
Adult Choir
Wednesday nights at 7:15 pmfor more info contact Nancy Whipkey @ 651-439-2609
YogaDevotion & Tai Chi
Yoga began another session on 11/27, Tuesdays at 7 pm
Tai Chi was cancelled for the Fall, to be rescheduled at a later date.
Contact Laura Weston if interested in Yogadevotion at 651-430-9028
Centering Prayer Groupfor more information on meeting times contact Lois Welshons @jonlos@aol.com |
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Ascension Episcopal Church
E-Newsletter CommunicationsLynn Raarup To submit an article or question please e-mail me at: enews@aechurch.org 651-439-2609 |
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