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 was ordained in 2000 and has served parishes as a non-stipendiary priest in both the Anglican and Episcopal churches. Before returning to the United States in 2019 she was based for ten years at Ely Cathedral as an Honorary Canon. As an academic theologian she has recently retired from the Norris-Hulse Professorship of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and is now visiting Research Professor at Australian Catholic University (Melbourne and Rome), and Honorary Fellow, Oriel College, Oxford. Earlier in her career she taught at the Universities of Lancaster, Oxford, Princeton and Harvard (where she was Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, 1995-2007). She has been assisting priest and theologian-in-residence at the Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes since 2019, and is the founder of the parish's School of Theology and Prayer. Mother Sarah is married to Dr. James F. (Chip) Coakley, a scholar of Syriac theology and literature, and they have two grown-up daughters, Edith Coakley Stowe and Agnes Coakley Cox.

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 at Ascension and St. Agnes, where she facilitates the Lay Eucharistic Visitors program, serves as a liturgical deacon and coordinates the intercessory prayer program.  

The Rev. Dr. Frederick Erickson Assisting Deacon
ferickson@gseis.ucla.edu
Frederick Erickson has been a vocational (permanent) deacon since 1975. He has been a non-stipendiary assistant in parishes and a university chaplaincy in the dioceses of Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles. He has also been involved in teaching candidates for ordination to the diaconate and in the Diocese of Los Angeles was appointed as its inaugural Archdeacon for Deacons. Upon his retirement as archdeacon he was appointed as an honorary canon.
Beginning with study in music at Northwestern University he later did inner city youth work on Chicago’s West Side and was a volunteer with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s “northern initiative” in Chicago, led by Dr. Martin Luther King. Returning to Northwestern, he received in 1969 a Ph. D. in the (then) new field of anthropology of education. A pioneer in the use of video recording to study human communication, he retired from full time academic work in 2011 and moved from Los Angeles to the DC area.

Mr. Collin Power Director of Music Ministry

c.power@asa-dc.org
A multifaceted musician equally at home on the organ bench and the stage, Collin Power is an active organist, conductor, and singer in the Washington D.C. and Baltimore areas. He enjoys a rigorous performing and conducting schedule ranging from playing with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and accompanying the D.C. based Lux Choir, to singing with such renowned groups as Opera Saratoga, the Seagle Music Colony and as a soloist with the New Dominion and Georgetown Chorales. A strong advocate for both early music and contemporary music, especially sacred works by living composers, Collin holds a deep belief in the pastoral role of music ministry to transform lives and bring people closer to God. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the University of Maryland where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 2019. Outside of his musical career, he enjoys obscure liturgical history, books about monks, long bike rides and big band music.