Parish Staff

parish Staff

The Rev. Dominique Peridans Rector

fatherdominiqueasa@gmail.com | Direct: (202) 559-7731
Father Dominique Peridans was born in Washington, DC and raised in neighboring Maryland. After receiving his undergraduate degree in Psychology, Father Dominique spent 3 years with the L’Arche community (for adults with mental disabilities) in Brussels, Belgium, and then joined the Congregation of St. Jean, a French Roman Catholic monastic community, with whom he spent 14 years. While with them, he was ordained to the priesthood. In 2013, Father Dominique received a Master of Science in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University, Maryland, and was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church by The Right Reverend Eugene Sutton of Maryland. Of Belgian immigrant parents, Fr. Dominique is bilingual French-English.

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Coakley Assisting priest & Theologian-in-residence

sc545@cam.ac.uk
Sarah Coakley is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity emerita, University of Cambridge, Research Professor at Australian Catholic University (Melbourne and Rome), and Honorary Fellow, Oriel College, Oxford. Earlier in her career she has taught at the Universities of Lancaster, Oxford, Princeton and Harvard (where she was Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, 1995-2007). She was elected a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012, the same year in which she delivered Gifford Lectures at Aberdeen University. She is currently writing a four-volume systematic theology, the first volume of which was published as God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ (2013). Her Gifford Lectures are forthcoming as Sacrifice Regained: Evolution, Cooperation and God. She has been assisting priest and theologian-in-residence at the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes since 2019.

THE REV. Mary McCue deacon

mccjuem@aol.com
Before being ordained in September, 2017, Mary and her four colleagues attended Deacons School created and sponsored by the Diocese. They studied New and Old Testament, Systematic Theology, Ethics, Church History, preaching and community organization, among other topics. Mary holds a Diploma in Theology from Virginia Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science from Boston University. Before entering Deacons School, she was a frequent acolyte, senior warden and member of the Finance Committee at St. Monica and St. James, her home parish. While serving there, she had the honor of getting to know (and revere) the late Dr. Father Ronald Conner. Mary is thrilled to be assigned as a deacon to Ascension and St. Agnes, and is looking forward to working with Father Dominique and the congregation.

Dr. Frederick Erickson Assisting Deacon

ferickson@gseis.ucla.edu
Frederick Erickson was ordained in Boston as a vocational (permanent) deacon in June 1975 by Bishop John M. Burgess, on behalf of Bishop James W. Montgomery of Chicago. He has served as a non-stipendiary assistant in parishes and a university chaplaincy in the dioceses of Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles. In the latter three dioceses he has also been involved in teaching candidates for ordination as vocational deacons. In 2006 he was appointed as the inaugural Archdeacon for Deacons in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Upon his retirement as archdeacon he was named an honorary canon there. He is a member of the Fellowship of St. John of the Society of St. John the Evangelist.
His “day job” has been as an academic. Beginning with study in music at Northwestern University he later did inner city youth work on Chicago’s West Side and volunteered there with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Dr. Martin Luther King’s “northern initiative”. In 1969 he completed his Ph.D. in the field of anthropology and education, which addresses issues of culture, language, race, ethnicity, and social class in formal and informal educational settings. He has been a pioneer in the use of video recording to study human communication. Faculty appointments have included Harvard, Michigan State, the University of Pennsylvania, and most recently UCLA, from which he retired in 2011. Fred lives in Garrett Park, MD with his wife, Joanne Straceski. In summers Fred and Joanne drive to the mid-coast of Maine, where with retired clergy friends Fred goes day sailing every afternoon that weather permits.

Mr. Collin Power Interim Director of Music Ministry

collinpower15@gmail.com | Direct (202) 559-7744
Collin is a baritone studying with Kevin Short at the University of Maryland. In addition to voice, he studies organ with Dr. Theodore Guerrant. Most recently he sang in the 49th season of the College Light Opera Company, and with Opera Terps including Don Quichotte (Sancho Pansa), The Impressario (Buff), and Dr. Miracle (Mayor). He has also sung with the choruses of the Annapolis Opera Company, Chesapeake Chamber Opera, the Maryland Opera Studio, and the Washington Opera Society. He made his debut in 2009 as Harry in Albert Herring with Opera Vivente and has been an opera-lover ever since. Collin has sung with the UMD Chamber Choir, the UMD Men's Chorus, and is the music director of the student-led group MännerMusik. A long-time member of the choir of the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, he was selected to be interim director of the church's music ministry in early December 2019.