ascension day

A Celebration of Christian Community

We are doubly blessed at The Church of the Ascension when our "name day" returns each year. This May, not only did we have the rare privilege of mounting a full festival celebration of this joyful Feast of Our Lord, but it was also a time when we added new members to the parish through Confirmation, Reception and Re-affirmation in the presence of one of our Bishops. The Rt. Rev. Andrew St. John, our near neighbor who serves as Rector of the Church of the Transfiguration, joined us to add five new members to our parish family. Year by year our small corner of the Lord's Vineyard is changing and growing as new people join us and as others move on because of the busy pace of urban life.

As I reflect on the joys of life in Christian community, my thoughts are often guided and enriched by the Rule of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist — that monastic community in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to which I am affiliated as a member of their Fellowship. There is a challenging paragraph in their Rule which I want to offer (with a few adaptations) for consideration as Ascension Day was celebrated again and we think about the nature of our shared life in this parish:

"Every Christian is called to live in community as a member of the Church. Christ in his wisdom draws each disciple into that particular expression of community which will be the best means of his or her conversion. … The first challenge of [parish] life is to accept wholeheartedly the authority of Christ to call whom he will. Our [parish] is not formed by the natural attraction of like-minded people. We are given to one another by Christ and he calls us to accept one another as we are. By abiding in him we can unite in a mutual love which goes deeper than personal attraction. Mutual acceptance and love call us to value our differences of background, temperament, gifts, personality, and style. Only when we recognize them as sources of vitality are we able to let go of competitiveness and jealousy. As we actively seek to grow … we must ardently seek for signs that God desires to increase our diversity in culture and race. We are also called to accept with compassion and humility the particular fragility, complexity, and incompleteness of each [member]. Our diversity and brokenness mean that tensions and friction are inevitably woven into the fabric of everyday life. They are not to be regarded as signs of failure. Christ uses them for our conversion as we grow in mutual forbearance and learn to let go of the pride that drives us to control and reform our [brothers and sisters] on our own terms."

The Rule of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, page 10

This issue of Life at Ascension features short descriptions of some new and renewed members of our community who made their public professions of faith in the presence of Bishop St. John. May we all take this opportunity when our parish visibly grows, to take to heart our calling to become a true expression of God's Kingdom as we try to live as a circle of Christ's friends.

— The Rev. Andrew W. Foster, Rector