End of Summer

Please help Celebrate The Season of Pentecost
and the power of Jesus to teach, inspire and lead us

WE WELCOME ALL VISITORS AND SEEKERS OF GOD.

ALL BAPTIZED CHRISTIANS ARE INVITED TO RECEIVE THE HOLY COMMUNION.

LORD, LET US PRAY AND WORK TO HEAR YOUR WORD, CHANGE OUR HEARTS
AND GO FORTH TO DO YOUR WILL, EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT


Dear Friends, August 23, 2010

Yesterday, and this week, your correspondent was/is on the road, with an old car tour in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. I hope you all had a wonderful day, and will feel the presence of God in your life throughout this week.

Please keep in your prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. Please pray that we may have a successful clergy search. Kindly also pray for the Wardens and their work in this time of search.

Just around the corner is the arrival of The Rev. Denise Yarbrough in September, please remember that your prayers and all of our prayers will be the more powerful when offered with others' on Sunday morning or at other services. Please make it a point this fall to be in church regularly, or if weighing whether to make God's community important in your life, to try coming for several Sundays in a row...Homecoming Sunday is September 12, and this is for everyone, old and new, seeker and regular. God loves us all and wants us to gather, learn, break bread and celebrate in his name.

We seek a new and strong clergy leader, and our strength in numbers at worship speaks volumes of our true intentions. Please see yourself in community with others and prepared to greet and share. All are needed, all are important!

If you are a pledging/giving supporter of the church, please remember to send in your contributions this summer, as our bills do not take a holiday!!

Next year will be the 125th Anniversary of the founding and of the ministry of Ascension. In preparation, let us draw closer to God's Spirit in the Season of Pentecost - to remind us of the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit to counsel, energize and sustain us all.. We honor our long history, but it is our future that must command our attention and energy.

William G. Burrill was our esteemed Bishop for many years. To celebrate the life of his late wife, Kay Clough Burrill, there will be a Memorial Eucharist, Saturday, August 28, 10 AM at Christ Church, Pittsford.

The Ascension Women's Group will meet in the library on the second floor on September 2 at Noon, featuring Midge Crittenden speaking on the Honor Flight to Washington, DC to visit the World War II Memorial.

Tuesday, September 14 from 10 -3 Ascension will host a workshop on Women and Trauma. For information, please call Mike Bleeg 325-7746 or email mbleegsmart@frontier.net

Please save the date of September 18, when Ascension will be the home base fore the Annual Maplewood Home Tour. This promises to be a fine occasion. Our Organist/Choir Director, John Allegar will offer, with colleagues from Eastman, an ongoing organ demonstration and sampling of organ works.

Once again, we have several dinners and other parties to look forward to. The first scheduled parish dinner with be the Roast Beef Dinner on November 6th. Please mark your diary!!

Choir will be starting on Wed., September 8 and will sing on Sunday, September 12. If you would like to check out this group, please speak to John Allegar or to a choir singer! It is fun and a wonderful treat for the soul. John can be reached at John.Allegar@gmail.com

Coffee Hour is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host the Coffee Hour, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423.

Please visit or call a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. With good weather, we can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!

Altar flowers are an outstanding ministry of beauty and love. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate altar flowers, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com There are openings on several Sundays upcoming.

Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. In this season, the lessons confirm what we are to do as disciples. There is food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below. If we wish to grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Here is a good way to begin.

The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R I J M, 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! Someone recently made and ongoing United Way designation for R I J M. Many Thanks!

A congregation grows like a seed, starting in the heart of each faithful person. If we want to grow, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.

When we see new people on Sunday or at an event, let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and even inviting them to brunch after church. This is a part of God's work for each and every one of us.

Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See"..

If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please email me that information.

Blessings,

Dyson
D. Dyson Gay
585-317-4039

P.S. Next Sunday, we will sing All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name The link is done to the tune Diadem that is very dynamic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3-SwidavfU&feature=related
P.P.S. In the Gospel for next Sunday, Jesus teaches of dinners and dinner guests. You may wish to invite some guests and serve this little recipe for a broiled tomato treat...Please see below.......
If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it in!
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The Gospel for next Sunday is:
Luke 14:1, 7-14
14:1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.

14:7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.

14:8 "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;

14:9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

14:11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

14:12 He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.

14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

14:14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.".
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And, now, --- broiled tomatoes make a great dish to share.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 medium tomatoes [to serve 2, possibly 4 - multiply for groups]
* Dijon mustard
* salt
* fresh ground pepper
* ground cayenne pepper
* 3 tablespoons melted butter
* 1/4 cup seasoned fine dry bread crumbs
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation:
Directions for broiled tomatoes
Cut tomatoes in half; remove stem 'green'; spread cut side with mustard and sprinkle with a little salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Combine melted butter, bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese. Spoon crumb mixture over the flesh side of each tomato half. Place under the broiler and broil until crumbs are browned and tomatoes are tender. Serves 2-4.