Hello, members, friends and neighbors of Ascension,

Beginning this Saturday, July 6, the St. Anthony's Food Pantry is under transitional leadership. What does this mean? For nine years Susan Schlough has provided amazing leadership and consistency as coordinator of the food pantry, our largest outreach effort at the Church of the Ascension. Now I have agreed, for a period of time, to lead a small transition team to look at what we do, why we do it and how we do it, as we look to the future. Vestry members Marilyn Evans and Patrick Johnston and others have already shared in this transition as well.

First and foremost we need your prayers and support. Second, we need your help. Before the food pantry opens (the 1 ^st Saturday of every month) we need people willing to shop for lunch supplies & toiletries (you will be reimbursed), we need folks who will assemble shopping bags, assemble the toiletries bags we put into the food bags (sometimes the toiletries are more popular than the food) and finally we need help on Saturday mornings beginning at 8:30am making lunches; and 10:30 filling the grocery bags with the food we provide monthly.

How can you help?

Why should you become involved? In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us plainly that we are called to feed and care for those in need. It is our Christian duty. More than a duty though, this is an opportunity to put Faith into Action! at the Church of the Ascension. Please look into your heart and see how you may be able to assist this important ministry!

I remain your servant in Christ,

Deacon Charles Farrell

 

It's time to plan for a picnic at Millennium Park! Ascension Connections wants your input. The plan is to pick a date (a Friday or Saturday), gather on the lawn and share a picnic and hear some great music! Last summer we had two picnics. Both were very enjoyable.

 

So please click on this Grant Park Music Festival link, choose a concert (or concerts) and dates that you prefer and e-mail your choice to me. The most popular dates will be selected for an Ascension picnic. The picnic dates along with details will be in future issues of TWAA.

Thanks!

Cynthia Perrizo

Senior Warden and 

Chair of Ascension Connections

Holiday  Week  Alerts!

+ This will be a shorter-than-usual newsletter

 

+ All services as usual (except for NO Thursday Evening Prayer). Please join us for:

Wednesday Evening Prayer and Mass - 6:10 & 6:30 p.m.

Thursday Morning Prayer - 7:10 a.m.

Friday Morning Prayer - 7:10 a.m.

Saturday Morning Prayer - 9:40 a.m.

Saturday Mass for Healing - 10:00 a.m.

White Plays   Ives!  (and more)

I anticipated Independence Day last Sunday, both in my sermon and by inviting the congregation to share in the Collect 'For our Country' (BCP p. 820) to conclude the Prayers of the People. Meanwhile, Organist David White's music notes on Suday's music, with patriotic allusions, are shared here.

  The opening voluntary ... The 29-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven published sets of variations "for keyboards or pedal keyboards" on several popular English melodies of the day. When 'God Save the King" was first printed in 1799, it was credited to "Louis" van Beethoven. Beethoven himself probably first informally performed these along with variations on Rule, Britannia!  They are dashing, classical treatments, but with a splash of Beethoven's always forward-looking writing. Soon after, on the other side of the Atlantic, that same melody which had seen so many settings and texts, was adopted by the young nation, the USA.

The closing voluntary ...  At 17, Charles Edward Ives, since 14 the local church organist in     Danbury, CT, wrote a set of variations on the song America for the July 4 celebration in Brewster, NY. He loved playing the piece, calling it, "as much fun as playing baseball." Full of his trademark irreverent creativity, it, his Piano Trio, and his Psalm 90  for choir/organ/bells - were purportedly the only pieces he cared if anyone ever played after his death.

David also promises  "two of the finest examples of early American shape note hymnody."

Use of (and some failure to use) our Tax Exempt certificate was one topic at our Finance Committee meeting last Saturday, June 29. If you make purchases for the church with church funds or with the intention of reimbursement, please use an Illinois Sales Tax Exemption Certificate, available in a file in the Treasurer's mailbox at the church. At 10%, our sales tax in the City of Chicago is the highest in the state. Failure to take advantage of our tax exempt status is therefore costly to the church. Please also bear in mind that misuse of the exemption (as example for personal purchases) is a criminal offence and may jeopardize the church's exemption status. Questions may be addressed to Treasurer Susan Schlough.

Apropos of Independence Day themes, below is a homily by the Rev. Dr. John Toles that recounts the history of the 1785 Consecration of Samuel Seabury, first Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Father Toles is Rector of St. Matthew's Church, Enid, Oklahoma (and a 2004 graduate of Nathotah House). The photo is of a window at St. Matthew's.  - Fr. Raymond

The year is 1776 and you are an Anglican priest serving in the American
colonies. During the service, you come to the prayers and read the following prayer: "Almighty God, the foundation of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to bless our gracious King George and all the royal family...." The next thing you know, a rotten egg has hit you square between the eyes.

As you would imagine, the Anglican Church was not very popular around the time of the American Revolutionary War. Many Anglican priest fled the communities where they were threatened and some were killed by the patriots for their refusal to renounce the king. However, following the war, the Anglicans looked for a way to move forward in America-the problem was bishops. It takes a bishop to ordain clergy and three bishops to consecrate a new bishop. America didn't even have one, so the church in Connecticut began looking for ways to resolve the problem.

	Window in St. Matthew's Church, Enid, OK

The first idea came from William White. He suggested we have priest ordain priest, but that idea was quickly rebuked. The next idea was to send a priest to England and have him consecrated. This was approved and Samuel Seabury set sail. He was a loyalist, so they believed that he would have a better chance of being consecrated, but when he arrived, no one would consecrate him because in order to do so for America, the consecration required that the vow of allegiance to the king be omitted, something that required an act of parliament to accomplish.

As an alternative, John Adams, the ambassador of the US to England made arrangements with the Lutheran Church of Denmark to consecrate Seabury. Thanks be to God that didn't happen. Can you imagine me a Lutheran?! (That's a joke.) After thirteen months of trying, Seabury petitioned the council in Connecticut for permission to try for the consecration in Scotland. The Scottish Episcopal Church had broken from the Church of England in 1725. Connecticut and the Scottish both agreed, and on November 14, 1785, Samuel Seabury was consecrated the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in America.

Later, we would have two more bishops, William White and Samuel Provost, who were consecrated in England, and in 1792, these three came together and consecrated Thomas John Clagget, the first bishop of Maryland and the first fully American bishop, and in the process united the Scottish and English lines of episcopal succession.

For Seabury, the first time he appeared in church he was fully vested in rochet, chimere, academic hood, and miter. Someone commented: "He appears in a black satin gown; white satin sleeves, white belly band, with a scarlet knapsack on his back, and something resembling a pyramid on his head." A congregational minister noted: "His appearance is singular... It is said, he must either be greater than other men, or else he is crazy."

The American church asked for laborers of the harvest in the form of a bishop and they received Samuel Seabury. From him, we are here. The first Bishop of Oklahoma was Francis Key Brooke, the 165th American Bishop. Our Bishop Ed is the 1,020th Bishop of the American Church.

There are many ways of understanding the roll of bishops, but for me, St. Cyprian of Carthage put it best, "'The Church is in the bishop and the bishop in the Church.' Put another way, there is no Church where there is no bishop.'" (Michael Azkoul) As part of my ordination to the priesthood, under oath, I was asked: "Will you respect and be guided by the pastoral direction and leadership of your bishop?" My response, "I will." Obedience to my bishop is something I take very seriously. That said, and please don't tell Bishop Ed I said this: the bishops are not perfect. They make mistakes like the rest of us. Some are weak and others strong. However, the bishops are a connection to the past and to Christ through the laying on of hands and the handing down of the traditions and legacy of our church; therefore, we celebrate Samuel Seabury for bringing the episcopacy to America and to us that we might worship the Lord in fullness and unity.