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Food Ministry Feeding the body as well as the soul has always been an important part of life at Ascension. We host seven annual dinners: Summer Picnic in the Park, Seneca Park Zoo, August 7, 2022 Lobster Dinner, September, Date TBD Welcoming/Homecoming Sunday, late September Roast Beef Dinner, Saturday, mid-October Christmas Party, Sunday, mid-December Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, Tuesday February 21, 2023 - 5:00 PM Pasta Dinner, Saturday, mid-March Chicken and Biscuit Dinner, Saturday, late April Please join us in fellowship and food!

June 7th, 2020 June 21st, 2020 July 5th, 2020 July 19th, 2020 August 2nd, 2020 August 16th, 2020 August 30th, 2020 September 13th, 2020 September 27th, 2020 October 11th, 2020 October 25th, 2020 November 8th, 2020 November 22nd, 2020 December 6th, 2020 Advent Lessons and Carols Christmas Concert December 24th, 2020 June 14th, 2020 June 28th, 2020 July 12th, 2020 July 26th, 2020 August 9th, 2020 August 23rd, 2020 September 6th, 2020 September 20th, 2020 October 4th, 2020 October 18th, 2020 November 1st, 2020 November 15th, 2020 November 29th, 2020 December 13th, 2020 December 20th, 2020 Virtual Pageant December 27th, 2020

The Rev. Adibhananthar John Rector Nicole Hercules Seminarian Cindy Smith Administrative Assistant Sarah Johnson Music Minister Angel Perez Sexton Vestry Christian Haller, Sr. Warden rin ger2@mac.com Dyson Gay, Jr. Warden dysong y@ao l.com Mary Bickel, Treasurer maryk bic@aol.com Kate Stella-Begy, Clerk of Vestry marykate7687@gmail.com Father Abi John, Chair ascpriest@aol.com D ebbie Copenhagen cupidsal@hotmail.com Bob Crystal crys24634@gmail.com Patricia Frasca thepatriciafr asca@gmail.com Kathy Kohler kkohler1026@gmail.com Ryan McDermott ryan.mcdermott1208@gmail.com Kathy O'Leary kathyjoleary@gmail.com Nancy Turchetti nturchetti@rochester.rr.com Jerry Welcher jswelcher@aol.com Bentley Church Dog

Altar Guild The Altar Guild would love you to join us. We are a dedicated group divided into teams that rotate the duties on a monthly basis. It involves setting up for services, follow-up after the services, and changing the hangings according to the color of the season.

Care Closet The Care Closet provides personal care items, cleaning supplies, and other household items on a rotating schedule to our neighbors in need of assistance. The Care Closet is run by volunteers from the parish and serves the Maplewood-Edgerton area. We are once again serving the community on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, from 9:00am to 11:00am. Please call (585) 458-4682 to make an appointment.

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MEEK MEEK, the Maplewood Edgerton Emergency Kupboard, serves our regional community at least two days per week, and in keeping with current realities is redefining and restating its mission to meet these changing conditions. Church of the Ascension, in partnership with other faith communities, continues to offer to neighborhood residents food to tide them over as there are, in these days, food emergencies for individuals and families. MEEK has been responsible for distributing more than 800,000 meals to 95,000 people over the last few decades. Additional volunteers are always welcome. Please call (585) 944-3093 for inquiries.

Bible Study Each week you have the opportunity to deepen your relationship with God through our Sabbath-day Bible Study. Bible Study is held in person on Sundays at 9:00 am in our library, accompanied by light refreshments. During this time we explore God's word in fellowship with one another. Through prayer and discussion we nurture our relationships with God and open our hearts to his plan for our lives. For more information call the church office at (585) 458-5423.

Change Ringing on Our Tower Bells Welcome to our website entry. As a potential visitor to our tower, whether to ring (welcome!) or to watch us ringing and learn what it’s about, we will greet you warmly, take you upstairs to see the bells, show you how we raise and ring the bells, and answer all your questions. The sound of church bells has become an iconic symbol of worship in the Christian Church, informing hearers that a service is about to start, and inviting worshipers. That is particularly true in England, where the art of change ringing was developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (every second village in England has a bell tower, and towns and cities have several). The custom has spread around the world, mostly to places where the British had colonies. Rochester’s Church of the Ascension is pleased and proud to have such a set of bells, installed in its tower in 2015. There are many things that make these bells a unique feature in the Rochester community. They are beautifully tuned, but because of the manner in which they hang, they do not ring tunes, they ring changes on the order of the bells. When the bells are well rung by experienced ringers, the result for listeners is a beautiful musical experience, although change ringing is not usually considered a performance art. Unlike a carillon or a chime, at which a lone person pulls or pushes or otherwise manipulates a large keyboard to ring a tune, a peal of change-ringing bells requires one person per bell. Each person pulls on a rope that hangs down from the bell chamber, on a floor above the ringing chamber. In Ascension's tower, the ringing chamber is at ground level, so it is easy to watch the ringers. There are ten bells at Ascension hung for change ringing (defined as the ringing of sets of church bells or handbells in a constantly varying order; see Wikipedia for basic and general information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing .) Because of considerations of safety and volume , people cannot see the bells as they actually ring, but here is a brief clip of Ascension's ten bells swinging and sounding forth: "Bristol Royal" rung on Ascension's Tower Bells From here in western New York, the nearest similar change-ringing bell tower is in Toronto, Canada (175 miles away); and if we stay in this country, the nearest are in Pittsburgh (300 miles), Kent School, Kent, CT (also about 300 miles), New York City (340 miles), and Philadelphia (350 miles). For more information about change ringing at other bell towers in North America, see www.nagcr.org . For more information about ringing and bells worldwide, see www.cccbr.org.uk . Chris and Helen Haller, the major donors of the bells, selected the persons to be honored by having a bell named after them. Some are very personal choices, some are notable Rochester names, and some are notable national, international, or bell-ringing people. Our lightest bell, “Trudy”, weighs 375 pounds, and the heaviest, “Martin”, weighs 1267 pounds. That may sound intimidating to non-ringers, but the fact is that they are well counter-balanced and swing on modern bearings, so that it does not take unusual effort to ring them. Anyone weighing over about a hundred pounds can ring most bells. Each of our bells is inscribed with the name of the person honored, and one or two appropriate lines from Stanza 106 of “In Memoriam” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Chris Haller reading “In Memoriam” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson The expert workers at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, England (a firm with centuries of experience) drew up the plans, cast and tuned the bells, and made the frame and fittings that enable them to swing. Everything was shipped to Church of the Ascension, and installed in the waiting church tower. The Ceremony of Blessing and Dedication took place on November 21, 2015, with The Right Reverend Prince G. Singh, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester, presiding, and our Rector at the time, The Rev. Dahn Gandell, welcoming those attending. Here is a video showing highlights of some of those events: The arrival, installation, and dedication of the ten bells at Church of the Ascension When at least three ringers are available, we ring the bells before and after the 10:15 AM Sunday service. We are fortunate to have a computer-actuated chiming mechanism also in place, that can chime changes before the service if fewer ringers are available. We have practices twice a week, for an hour and a half after the service on Sundays, and on Friday evenings between 6:30 and 8 PM. Yes, it takes plenty of practice to learn to ring and to improve and advance our skills. This is what change ringing looks like: C hris Haller, Helen Haller and the English bell hanger, Neil Thomas, ringing on the first day the bells were rung If you are considering a visit to ring or to watch the ringing, please check with Chris Haller (585-203-7457; ringer2@mac.com ) to confirm that ringing will take place on your proposed date. Also call Chris if you think you are interested in learning to ring; a series of one-on-one lessons can be arranged at mutual convenience, to make you ready to ring with our band in the regular practices.

Sunday School Our Sunday School program will commence on September 4, after being mostly dormant over the past two years due to the Covid pandemic. We are planning to use a new curriculum developed by Father Abi. It will focus on God, Jesus, and the Church in modules geared towards the students' age group. Children ages 2 – 5 will go to the Crib Room to play under the supervision of one of our teenage leaders. We continue to look for people to help out with Sunday School activities, even if it is only for a few weeks. Your musical skills, arts & crafts skills, story-telling are welcome., Contact the office to get connected.

Services Noonday Prayer, Tuesday 12:00 pm Bible Study, Thursday 9:30 am We currently offer Services at 8:00 & 10:15 am We are glad to offer in-person services each Sunday 10:15 am, and 8:00 am. Since March 2020, we have provided Sunday morning live-streamed services on YouTube and Facebook. We also offer a Noonday Prayer service on Tuesdays an 12:00 pm and Bible Study on Thursdays at 9:30 am, both on Zoom. Online Services are premiered Sunday at 10:15 am on both YouTube and Facebook. Passcode: 420173 Music Our services include music lead by Mitchell Miller. Our Choral Scholars allow us to hear hymns in church every week. Church of the Ascension is the home to one of Rochester's best organs--a Skinner organ donated by a parishioner who purchased it from the Rochester Auditorium more than 50 years ago. The organ has more than 3,500 pipes and attracts many talented musicians. Children's Programs Special programs are offered for Children and teens and nursery services are provided for our youngest children. Home Visitation For those who are temporarily or long-term unable to attend in-church services and receive the Holy Eucharist, home visitations can be arranged through the church office (585) 458-5423 Eucharist, Sunday 10:15 am Eucharist, Sunday 10:15 am