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Interim Rector's Note 04-28-22



Dear Ones,


I want to bring your attention today to the fact that while we’ve had a bit of a respite as of late (thank you, Jesus), Covid-19 is still around and amongst us each day. And this week, it made its return to our CCS campus. The school board met and faithfully decided to inform the families of our students so they could make the best decisions possible for their needs and it felt important for us as a united community to keep you in the loop too.


After examination, we are not going to change our current worship protocols, but I would remind you of a few options so you are able to make the best decisions for your circumstances too.


1.     Our 9am worship online will remain available for those who would prefer an added layer of separation from gatherings. We are committed to providing some sort of online worship option for these who are in need of it.


2.     Masks will not be required at the 10:30am service, but I will be asking the altar party to mask during the distribution of communion when we’re in closer contact with all of you. Masks and sanitizer will also remain available in the Narthex. If you have any sniffle or tickle, please default to caution. While it’s heavily allergy season right now, it could be Covid too as the symptoms often overlap. Please love your neighbor as yourself by taking a precaution if you feel that tickle on any given Sunday.


3.     The 6pm service has been a mixed house of masked and unmasked, but due to lower numbers, our ability to social distance has been greater. So if you would still like to attend live worship but with less folks around, the 6pm service is a great option for you at this time. And again, the altar party will mask for the distribution of communion to the congregation.


So what I can tell you is that there’s promising news headed our way thanks to an emergency authorization being near for vaccines for our youngest children and that we are getting closer to herd immunity. The CDC states we are in a ‘transitional phase’ into a ‘controlled endemicity’. Covid is still a public health threat, but they are hopeful that future variants will encounter enough immunity in our population to be more mild than what we’ve seen. And so we will be cautiously optimistic for the future. Additionally, we will continue to keep each other informed so we can make as wise a decision as possible about how we keep each other as safe as possible. At the heart of those choices is Love.


Thank you for all you do to keep one another safe and well.


Thank you for the many ways you’ve reached out to one another during this difficult season.

Let us continue to love one another as He has loved us.


See you in church.


Peace,

Mother Erika

Merry Christmas!

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst+ • January 4, 2024
Merry Christmas! Today, this Eleventh Day of Christmas (for us who begin counting on December 25th), I’d like to share some wisdom from the pen of Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. As Bishop of Durham, he was part of the episcopal entourage and inner circle of bishops surrounding Queen Elizabeth II at her Westminster Abbey Coronation in 1953 and, later, Archbishop of York before his elevation to Canterbury in 1961. In the 1980’s, after his retirement from Canterbury, Ramsey was a regular presence at my seminary in Wisconsin where I first learned about him years later. The following is an excerpt from one of Bishop Ramsey’s annual letters to his diocesan clergy on New Year’s Day. This is also good advice for all the people of God and us at Christ Church of the Ascension as we go into 2024 expectant of what lies ahead and grateful for all our many blessings, past, present and future. Here are The Baron Arthur Michael Ramsey’s five tips for the new year. 1. Thank God. Often and always. Thank him carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow. 2. Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us realize. [He then gently commends the practice of sacramental confession.] 3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly but they can help to keep you humble. [Whether trivial or big, accept them he says.] All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our Lord. There is nothing to fear, if you are near to the Lord and in his hands. 4. Do not worry about status. There is only one status that Our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is our proximity to Him. “If a man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be” (John 12:26). That is our status; to be near our Lord wherever He may ask us to go with him. 5. Use your sense of humor. Laugh at things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh at yourself. Through the year people will thank God for you. And let the reason for their thankfulness be not just that you were a person whom they liked or loved but because you made God real to them. *** Amen! and Happy New Year !!  Grace & peace, Fr. Rod+

Rector's Note for 12/21/23

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • December 21, 2023
Rector's Note for 12/21/23 As we enter this season of giving in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord, I want to thank you for your generosity to Christ Church of the Ascension during 2023 in your gifts of time, talent and treasure. I want to say a special thank you also to those who have pledged for 2024! As our 2024 Stewardship Campaign continues, if you haven’t yet completed your pledge card or pledged online, I encourage you to do so as an act of spiritual worship and tangible prayer for the future of the Church in thanksgiving for all of God’s many blessings these past 60 years. Please join me in giving from the heart for the building up of this community of faith to inspire hope and love through worship and service in the Church and in the world. Make Christ Church of the Ascension part of your daily spiritual practice as you prayerfully discern what God is calling you to give in 2024 starting now. PLEDGE HERE Grace and peace, Father Rod+

A Note for Thanksgiving

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • November 16, 2023
A Note for Thanksgiving My series on the Collects of Thomas Cranmer will continue at a later date; but today I’d like to share with you one of my favorite stories by pastoral care pioneer Howard Clinebell. It speaks to us about the fact that the Church, our church, is not only a house of worship and prayer but a hospital for the broken, where Christ welcomes each person, where they are and for who they are. As Christ's hands and voice we then bring the healing arts of spiritual friendship and Christ-like love to all Christ brings our way. If we were all Christ-like all the time we would have no need for Christ and his Church; but everyday experiences tell us all that we have need of Christ each and every day of our lives—the healed and the healers alike. This charming and cautionary tale tells us what we are meant to be, and what we could become if we lose sight of our mission; but it is a reminder of our potential when we retain and, as necessary, reclaim our Christ-centered focus. Thus we give thanks! Please touch or click the link below to read the story. Lifesaving Station Grace and peace, Fr. Rod+
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