About Us
The Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes was founded in 1845, and we have been gathering and praying in this building since 1874. We are a parish of the Episcopal Church, part of the one, world-wide, Christian Church. We believe and proclaim the early Church’s statement of faith called the Apostle’s Creed (180 CE), a version of which can be found on page 304 in the Book of Common Prayer.
OUR MISSION
Followers and friends of Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, cultivating a thriving faith community by inviting, inspiring, and blessing.
OUR VISION
To be a thriving faith community that, with open doors and open hearts, expressing Christ's love with each other, our neighborhood, and beyond.
We Believe
That God continues to speak through Scripture and the tradition of the Church. As we seek to let God share Himself with us and speak through us, we too embody Tradition.
That the shepherds (Bishops) of the Church are connected through a spiritual lineage to the very first Apostles and followers of Jesus.
That in the mystery of the Incarnation, God become human, and touches us in a special way through the sacraments--which are unique encounters with God and channels of grace. The most intimate of these is the Eucharist/Holy Communion, to which all of our Christian sisters and brothers are invited.
That we are surrounded by an invisible cloud of witnesses, of saints, who accompany us on our journey.
That God’s mercy must be shared lavishly, and so we respect the individual journey of each pilgrim, and so open our doors to all.
That the shepherds (Bishops) of the Church are connected through a spiritual lineage to the very first Apostles and followers of Jesus.
That in the mystery of the Incarnation, God become human, and touches us in a special way through the sacraments--which are unique encounters with God and channels of grace. The most intimate of these is the Eucharist/Holy Communion, to which all of our Christian sisters and brothers are invited.
That we are surrounded by an invisible cloud of witnesses, of saints, who accompany us on our journey.
That God’s mercy must be shared lavishly, and so we respect the individual journey of each pilgrim, and so open our doors to all.
WE Value
We value, at the center of our worship, the transformative gift of the Eucharist, Communion, the Real Presence of Jesus, the Body and Blood of Christ, Bread of Angels (Psalm 78:25), food for our faith journey.
We value worship that expresses reverent gratitude for the Eucharist, and underscores the transcendence of God and awakens a sense of awe. Transcendent, however, does not mean distant. The Eucharist, both mysterious and tangible, helps us to understand this. The Eucharist also helps us to understand that the beauty of our worship is always for the sake of intimacy with God and one another.
We value one another, taking to heart the new commandment: “Love one another as I love you” (John 13:34, 15:12). We recognize that such generosity of heart, such lavish mercy, is possible only by the grace of God. As human beings, we are far too different from one another for this to occur spontaneously. Moreover, only Jesus can love as Jesus loves. We are pupils of His heart, from which he sends us forth to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
We value “loving the Lord our God with all our mind.” (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). As Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274) tells us, “Wonder is the desire for knowledge”. Rooted in the sacred awe that we experience together, we are committed as a community to the theological pursuit of truth.
We value the church as a community that welcomes all people, where viewpoint diversity is considered a blessing. Jesus’ “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The course of action for Christians in the political sphere, therefore, is not always obvious and may lead to different political perspectives amongst parishioners. We are certainly not removed from the world, as we are called to love “in truth and in action” (I John 3:18). Because we may have different understandings of how to “act justly” (Micah 6:8), as a church, we choose to minister primarily in our immediate community and we pray that each parishioner go forth, formed by our common faith and according to the dictates of individual conscience, to make the world a better place.
We value worship that expresses reverent gratitude for the Eucharist, and underscores the transcendence of God and awakens a sense of awe. Transcendent, however, does not mean distant. The Eucharist, both mysterious and tangible, helps us to understand this. The Eucharist also helps us to understand that the beauty of our worship is always for the sake of intimacy with God and one another.
We value one another, taking to heart the new commandment: “Love one another as I love you” (John 13:34, 15:12). We recognize that such generosity of heart, such lavish mercy, is possible only by the grace of God. As human beings, we are far too different from one another for this to occur spontaneously. Moreover, only Jesus can love as Jesus loves. We are pupils of His heart, from which he sends us forth to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
We value “loving the Lord our God with all our mind.” (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). As Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274) tells us, “Wonder is the desire for knowledge”. Rooted in the sacred awe that we experience together, we are committed as a community to the theological pursuit of truth.
We value the church as a community that welcomes all people, where viewpoint diversity is considered a blessing. Jesus’ “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The course of action for Christians in the political sphere, therefore, is not always obvious and may lead to different political perspectives amongst parishioners. We are certainly not removed from the world, as we are called to love “in truth and in action” (I John 3:18). Because we may have different understandings of how to “act justly” (Micah 6:8), as a church, we choose to minister primarily in our immediate community and we pray that each parishioner go forth, formed by our common faith and according to the dictates of individual conscience, to make the world a better place.