Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

The Church of the Ascension

in the City of New York

12 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10011

212-254-8620 | info@ascensionnyc.org | www.ascensionnyc.org

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Next Wednesday, October 27 at 7 pm is our Harvest Dinner. It's a beloved part of our parish life and stewardship, and I hope you will be there.

For the second year in a row, because of the difficulties of eating together in person in a close indoor space, we will gather online. Although we may each eat something delicious at our own tables, the harvest we share is not the usual bounty of food, but the bounty of lives. Prayers and poems, music and art, social justice and hilarity, laughter and tears, stories and photos- all will be part of the rich, challenging, grace-filled harvest of this year at Ascension.

I am very grateful to Rachel Sedor, who produces the Harvest Dinner each year with enormous dedication and love, and to everyone else who participates.

So come, take in the gifts, share what you have- and enjoy the feast!

Liz

Services at Church of the Ascension

Join Us!

Click this link for this Sunday's bulletin & hymns.

A Note About Prayers - For our Zoom participants, in order for us to collect your prayer intentions, please put them in the Zoom chat after the service has started and before the end of the sermon.

Sunday Services

Holy Eucharist - in the Church - 9:00 a.m.

Holy Eucharist with Music - in the Church - 11:00 a.m.

Iced tea and lemonade in the front garden following the service

Livestream Service via Zoom at 11:00 a.m.

How to join the livestream service:

From your computer, laptop, pad, smart phone, or other device, click this link:

Ascensionnyc.org/Sunday or zoom.us/j/322793633

If you do not have a device with a camera, you can still join with your phone by dialing the following number: 929-205-6099, and enter the meeting ID: 322 793 633.

Lights! Camera!... An Update on Livestreaming.

First off, a HUGE thank you to our interim tech team (Jacob Scott, Zennie Trieu, Eve Beglarian, and Steve Hubbard)! They have been invaluable in keeping us online while we wait for all the pieces to come together for our Local Live broadcasting. And thank you for your patience as we've worked through sound, logistics and wifi issues.

Here's where we are and where we're heading. The cabling is currently being installed. Once that's in place, the team from Local Live will install the cameras and show us what to do on our end. Then we should be good to go!

Weekday Services

Wednesday Evening Eucharist - in the Church; 6:00 p.m.

Evening Prayer Every Weekday Evening via Zoom

Join us each weeknight at 5:30 for Evening Prayer & discussion. Click this link to join: ascensionnyc.org/eveningprayer. To call in (voice, no camera), dial 929-205-6099; the meeting ID is 770 597 201.

Prayer & Meditation - Every Weekday starting at Noon

The Church is open for prayer and meditation every weekday; Monday through Friday, Noon to 3:00 p.m. Open Church will begin with Noonday Prayer, led by Brother Andrew, OSF.

Announcements

Commissioning of Stewardship Canvassers – will be this Sunday, October 24, at the 11:00 a.m. service. If you are scheduled to be a canvasser, please be sure to attend this service.

Harvest Dinner, Wednesday, October 27, 7 pm – You are invited to join us on Zoom this year for our virtual Harvest Dinner. The variants are just a little too much for us to work around for this historically close-contact affair. Instead, we will be following last year’s Ascension Dinner Theater format. Please join us for dinner (with food from your own kitchen). We will enjoy a thoughtful, enlightening and sometimes silly evening.

Do you have a photo or two (or three) to share about your past year’s pandemic experience? Please send them to Rachel at rachelsedor@yahoo.com. This photo compilation was so popular last year - please contribute! Also, if you would like to share a limerick, please send it to Rachel.

We very much look forward to so much fun the night of October 27th. This will certainly be a not-to-miss affair!

Next Racial Justice Group meeting Thursday, October 28 at 6:30 pm. For the next two months, we will read and discuss Clint Smith's How the Word is Passed: a Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. In a review of the book earlier this year in the NY Times, Julian Lucas writes, "Gregarious, learned and engagingly open-minded, the book meets America where it is on the subject- which is to say, all over the place. Beginning in his hometown, New Orleans, Smith visits nine places that memorialize or distort their link to the legacy of slavery, from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. He skillfully braids interviews with scholarship and personal observation, asking, 'How different might our country look if all of us fully understood what had happened here?'" Please join us for what will surely be a lively conversation! For October 28, please read the prologue and the first four chapters.

Halloween, Sunday October 31 - This year our Halloween festivities will be a bit different as we strive to incorporate safety and fun. During the coffee hour in the front garden we will have our usual merry band of witches, goblins, etc., at the gate handing out goodies to our neighbors. If you would like to volunteer, please reach contact Isabel Spencer at isa.spencer11@gmail.com.

Perseverance, by Callie Kimball –In the fictional town of Hillcroft Maine, a 20th century African American schoolteacher is determined to elevate her students. One hundred years later, in the same place, a white teacher is running for office. As the two stories intertwine, ownership of history takes center stage. Vin Knight is currently in this production which can be seen online at now through October 31, 2021, www.portlandstage.org/events/perseverance/.

All Souls Day, celebrated Wednesday November 3- Please join us for a special celebration of those we have lost in the past year at our Wednesday evening service on November 3 at 6 pm. All Souls is the commemoration of our particular beloved dead; it is also a time to remember those who have died and are remembered by God. In this season some say "the veil between the worlds is especially thin" and we not only remember but sense the presence and communion of those who have gone before us.

The last eighteen months have been a time of such enormous loss, often with no communal ritual of grief. We include those who have died of Covid-19, violence and climate disasters in our memorial. Following the tradition of the church in Latin America, we will create an altar for those we remember as part of the service. Please bring photos, mementos, names, or other images that you want to share with you to the service. We will also read the names of those who are being remembered, and you can send us your names via email to info@ascensionnyc.org. All names must be received by Tuesday, November 2.

Please join us for communal remembrance, grief and celebration.

All Saints Sunday, November 7- We celebrate the festival of all the saints on the Sunday after November 1, which this year is November 7. If you would like to add names to the list of those we remember, please send via email to info@ascensionnyc.org, or fill out a form this Sunday at church. All names must be received by Tuesday, November 2. You can also contribute to the special flowers for that day through Abundant Giving or by writing a check to the Church of the Ascension with "All Saints flowers" in the memo line.

From the Vestry! Click here to see the proposed agenda for the upcoming Vestry meeting.

Monday Evening Lectionary Bible Study -- Join us Monday evenings at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. This is an opportunity to read and discuss the readings for the upcoming Sunday. If you are interested in joining, please contact Sibyl Piccone.

Needlecraft Guild – Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 10; 6:30 p.m. – The next Needlecraft Guild is moved to November 10 (this month only!). We will meet via Zoom. For more information, please contact Mtr. Posey.

Support the Parish! Please check us out at ascensionnyc.org/give to find out how easy and secure it is. Click the envelope on the right to go the Ascension Website for more information and to give, whether a one-time donation, pledge payment, or make a new pledge.

Our parish can only continue its mission and ministry because of the generosity of parishioners, visitors, and friends of the parish and we are working hard to make our online giving as easy and seamless as possible.

(If you experience any issues with Abundant Giving, please email us at websexton@ascensionnyc.org)

A Note about Using Abundant Giving: When you donate and pledge through the Abundant Giving app or go through the website, you need to direct your donation to the correct category. There are multiple categories to choose from:

Offering Plate
Stewardship Pledge 2021
Rector's Fund
Memorial Gift

These categories change as we update categories during the year. (An example would be when we delete the Easter flowers category after Easter and add Christmas flowers for the weeks leading up to Christmas.)

To donate through your app or the website, click the link above. The next screen will prompt you: "How Much Do You Want To Give?" Next to that, is a drop-down list of categories. Offering plate is always listed first. Click on the little arrow and the list will appear. Click on which ever category you want your donation to be credited. It is important to identify which category you are donating to so that your year end statement will be correct.

You should have received your year-end statement for 2020. Please review it carefully and contact the parish office immediately if there are any issues.

This Week at Ascension

Sunday – October 24 – Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Holy Eucharist (Church) 9:00 a.m.

Holy Eucharist w/ Music (Church) 11:00 a.m.

(Live Stream of the service will be available)

Lemonade and Iced Tea (Front Garden) following the service

Monday – October 25

Church open for prayer & meditation; Noon to 3:00 p.m.