Rising: Together with Christ 
A Newsletter for a Partnership of Church of the Ascension and Chapel of St. John the Divine
Volume 1 Issue 60 September 2021 The Season after Pentecost
Summer Experiences Special for All Participants
Here's a picture of my dad wearing a stole that was made by and donated to the Chapel of St. John the Divine by Phoebe Ann Freeman of Narragansett. Before he took Evan, Leah and me on a pilgrimage, my dad offered us the treat of preaching at St. John's on the last Sunday of July. It was so fun to have him with us, and I consider it a gift to be able to hear him preach these days. I hope you all did as well.

The pilgrimage we went on was not what we expected or planned for, but was better than we could have hoped. I came back feeling very refreshed and blessed. It was not without difficulty. Due to Covid, travel is very complicated these days; and there were times when we almost got stuck because of different municipalities' requirements. But we were carried by God's grace through each experience and aware of that abundant blessing the whole time. While we did not get to go to Norway and see my relatives, we did get to go to Iceland and Ireland. Iceland was an amazing find for all of us: a place I heartily recommend you visit if you have a chance. Ireland was a place that my dad and I had visited, but Evan and Leah had not, and it too was full of unexpected blessings. Since we returned a number of people have asked if we could have a program and share our pictures of the pilgrimage. While my dad cannot be with us as he's back home in Florida, Leah and Evan have agreed to join me and share stories and pictures. Because of the good equipment for AV presentations at the Chapel in Saunderstown we will host it there in the parish hall, but members and friends from both churches are invited to attend.

We invite you to join us Wednesday Evening 7-8:30pm, September 15th for the Pilgrimage Slides and Stories presentation. If we're permitted with current Covid protocols, light refreshments will be served.

Whether or not you travelled this summer, I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the beauty of this place and be with friends and family. As we head into fall, we don't know quite what to expect, but as people of faith we trust that God will be with us through it all.

~Fr. Rob
Lobster Lunch and Bake Sale earns over $1500 for the Chapel!
Our parishes have struggled to figure out how to continue fundraising to support our mission during this pandemic. For example, Ascension's planned tag sale for September was recently canceled due to the high contact with others that is required by such an event. St. John's figured out a way to offer their annual Lobster Lunch and Bake Sale on a take-out basis this summer. Thanks to good advertising at the around the neighborhood the lunch was the most successful in recent memory, earning over $1,500 for the parish. The bake sale earned $230. Some customers were very happy that we were able to offer it this summer and said they missed it so much last year and have come to look forward to supporting the church in this annual tradition. Great job everyone finding a way to carry on! Below are some pictures of the team at work.
A Sunday Eucharist Dedicated to Brian E. Tennien
Brian Tennien, the son of Mae Henneberry from Church of the Ascension went to join the Lord in God's kingdom this spring. His family had a memorial service at his home church in Colorado, but wanted to offer something in his home at Ascension as well. Brian and his wife would always come to Ascension on holidays and whenever they were in town visiting his mother. The family asked to dedicate the Sunday Eucharist on September 5th to his memory, which we agreed to do. They are providing flowers for the altar. It will be the normal service for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, but after the service we will inter Brian's cremated remains in our Labyrinth Garden. All are welcome. Thank you Mae and family for letting us be a part of the grieving process with you and honoring Brian in this way!
Pastor Noël's Brother Chris
We have been praying for Noël's brother Chris in our Sunday prayers for a long time. Sadly, Chris died on August 31st. Noël wants to thank all the parishioners who reached out to her with words of condolence since the news was first released yesterday.
An Update on Phiobe from our Prayer List
Here's a picture of Phiobe that Pastor Noel sent in. The good news is that her work with her occupational therapists is starting to show results. Yesterday, she ate an entire pizza roll, a cucumber, and a fat piece of licorice! First time she has eaten that much! (We'll work on nutrition when she gets eating down!)

This is from Noel's friend Janice, Phoibe's grandmother. Phoibe was on a feeding tube for the first year or two of her life. She obviously is thriving, but still has a ways to go. The prayers we raise for her each weekend are appreciated and treasured by her family. 
A Schedule to be Posted of Kitchen/Hall Rentals
As there was some confusion about who would be using the kitchen and when at Ascension while I was away, I was asked by church leadership to post a weekly schedule on the bulletin board in the office hall way. I will be doing that and updating it each Sunday afternoon with any changes or one-time renters. We have contracts with all of our regular renters, which include that the church can claim use of the space as needed with sufficient notice (usually a week), and the kitchen or hall can be rented at other available times by making a deposit to secure the date. For now, here's when you can expect to see renters in our kitchen and Hall. This rental program is a big support to our church finances, was the work of the vestry back in 2018 to update and advertise our offerings, and represents smart stewardship of our buildings that otherwise would only get used on Sundays. The kitchen is always reserved all day every Sunday for coffee hour and Sunday Supper preparation.

Kitchen
Mondays after 7pm (3 hours) - Loafing Around
Tuesdays before 7am (3 hours) - Loafing Around
Wednesdays 11-4 - Sweet Marie's Tea Cottage
Thursday before 7am (3 hours) - Loafing Around
Friday after 5pm (3 hours) - Loafing Around
Saturday 4am-10am (6 hours) - Loafing Around

Parish Hall
Fridays 6am -11am Weight Watchers
Saturdays 6am - 11am Weight Watchers

We expect Generation Church to no longer be renting in September as we gave them notice in July that we would need the hall again for Sunday School and fellowship on Sunday mornings. Though it was disruptive at times, we're grateful to them for helping us financially keep our church going through the pandemic, since May of 2020.
Joke of the Month
These jokes actually appeared in church bulletins and newsletters.

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.'
The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.


Thanks to Judy Stickney for this month's Joke!
St. John's Block Party Provided Fun for All Ages!
Though the weather caused a postponement from the middle to end of July, the Block Party that the Community Engagement Committee at St. John's organized was well attended and a summer treat for all ages. In the committee organizing the event there was a special focus to provide activities that teens would enjoy, and lo and behold, teens came and enjoyed them! The committee (and the Chapel that backs them up) understands that there are youth in the community who could be reached with fun activities, especially in the summertime. This creates goodwill between the youth and their families and the parish. Thanks to Katharine McDuffie and Jean Bowerman for the pictures of the fun evening below and to everyone who contributed to this new summertime event!
Reflections on a Song
By Frank Pendola from the Centering Prayer Group

How Can I Keep From Singing (A trusty old hymn- rejected, revised, resounded, renewed!)

If this is your favorite hymn, feel free to put this in the trash now. My reflections and revisions are my own personal interpretations; what is going on within me as I look back, and move on now with my singing. Some songs have a curious power to endure. For me, this is one of them.

Rest assured, if I were to come to visit you at your place of worship and this song were part of the celebration, I would sing the words from your hymnal or songbook and simply enjoy the song!

This has been one of my favorites from the day I first heard it. I have sung it many, many times in public and prayed it many, many times in private. I’ve sung it in blissful peace and contentment as a young man, then in a deepening disillusionment as I grew older. It has been reborn for me.

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation I hear the real though far off hymn that hails a new creation.

Above earth’s lamentations? As a lover of song, I know that in the embrace of melody, in the pure joy of sending my voice out, riding the wave of the music, I truly was above! For brief, tantalizing moments... I would memorize and practice for hours for one of those moments. In those moments I did sense a new creation, a deeper reality. As time went on I knew that I was not just imagining it. I was often called upon to sing and I could see, in the faces of the people present, that my voice could carry something more than sound.

But as the years passed, I sensed that my faith was a romantic love, a yearning for something I knew I couldn’t have. My faith was in something “ far off”; far from me. It had never come to a full flowering. This became painfully obvious when I retired from teaching. I had pictured a golden glow around the end of my career as a teacher. Instead I had to face the reality that I was overwhelmed, deathly tired; burnt out.

No storm can shake my inmost calm, when to that rock I’m clinging. Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

I was more than shaken, I had come undone. I could still sing from habit and necessity but I could no longer cling to what had previously held me together. I had lost my grip.

That was several years ago. After much soul searching, therapy, study, and contemplative practice, I’ve found that my singing was not the ultimate experience of prayer. I learned that I had only scratched the surface. I learned to sit with the “lamentations” I’d worked so hard to rise above. I learned to find that the One who would heal me is nor far off in the outer reaches of the cosmos; but within me. I learned that the fruits of my study and practice would come in God’s time and not mine. I was not in control of this process. I came to understand in a new way that the Christ that I believe in is both transcendent and intimately personal. I had known this intellectually of course, but not in the heart of me.

Returning to this song of my youth now has been a challenge. My “clinging” had been rooted in fear. There was simply too much turmoil within that had been buried; hidden. Proclaiming my “inmost calm” in song did not ring true. It did not ring at all. Desperate clinging is far from calm.
When healing came, it did not arrive in a burst of glory. No heavenly voices or visions. But very, very gradually, in a quiet embrace; strengthening, refreshing, and most wonderful of all, enduring. Now I sing, not out of desperate need, but in a calm, quiet freedom.

My life flows on in endless song, in Joy, in lamentation I hear the real though silent hymn, that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm, He frees me from my clinging This Love is ONE, this love is ALL, how can I keep from singing?
Climate Change Famine
BBC News reports that Madagascar is on the brink of experiencing the world’s first “climate change famine”. This is according to the United Nations, which says tens of thousands of people are already suffering “catastrophic” levels of hunger and food insecurity after four years without rain.

Even though rain fell earlier this year, the worst hit part of Madagascar is still in the Parish of Amboasary in the Diocese of Toliara, where people are eating locusts and cacti to survive. Click here to read the full article.
Please pray for the people of this region.
Mary Oliver Poem from Centering Prayer Group
Our Centering Prayer Group for both churches continues to meet every Thursday, in person and on Zoom. During the summer we met alternating at the Church of the Ascension and the Chapel of St. John the Divine, but in August it was all at St. John's. Some participants still join us online and some from far away. One of our participants who lives in Providence sent this poem to the group, and I thought you would appreciate my sharing it here.
David and Jane Dobbins Moving to Maine
Dave and Jane Dobbins, residents of Wickford had joined the Chapel of St. John the Divine back in 2019 after Dave retired as the Vicar of St. Augustine's in Kingston. They have remained faithful in giving to the parish even when they couldn't attend during the pandemic, for which we are so grateful. We received this notice from Dave last week. We all hope that they will join us in worship whenever they're back in Rhode Island.

"We have bought a place in York Maine and will be leaving Rhode Island this weekend! While we are excited to be moving nearer to our family (in York and in Exeter NH) we are sad to be leaving colleagues and neighbors whose presence has meant so much to us. 

I will still be canonically resident in Rhode Island, and Jane and I expect to be visiting friends in RI episodically in the days ahead."
Donations to our Churches Possible Online
You may have noticed in our bulletins that the QR codes are put in by the offertory. Many people these days do not carry around cash, or even know how to use checks much less make donations with them. To facilitate ease of donations for people who have a phone and a credit card, but not a checkbook, envelopes and stamps, these codes will appear in our publications and bulletins. If people focus on these codes with their cell phones, the phone's web browser will be directed to our online giving sites. If you know how to use them, we welcome your donations here! We also invite you to add 2% to your donation if giving in this way to offset the fees the credit card companies charge us. Last month I discovered that the QR codes I had created were time sensitive and expired after a few days. I learned how to make a permanent one, and these below should work as long as our giving site is up.
Give to Church of the Ascension here! Give to Chapel of St. John the Divine here!
Please take pictures of parish activities and post them on our Facebook pages whenever you can! If you're not on Facebook but have something to share, send it to Jean Bowerman (phredmoose6@yahoo.com) for St. John's. Also, if you send your pictures by email to fatherrobtravis@gmail.com I will be glad to share them in future e-newsletters.
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This is a place to share our own pictures, poems, stories, encouraging links and images online etc. so that the newsletter can be more than just encouraging words from your clergy. If you want to put something in here simply email your submission to me at fatherrobtravis@gmail.com for consideration. Not sure what to submit? Let this scripture be your guide: "Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse." Philippians 4:8 (The Message)