A Hundred Forty Years on Village Avenue
The Church of the Ascension sits one short block from the Long Island Rail Road's Rockville Centre station, with its front door opening onto North Village Avenue in the heart of the village. Inside, regular worshippers, visitors, and a fair number of children find an Episcopal parish that calls itself an "eclectic mix of people," young and old, male and female, gay and straight, Black and white, Democrats and Republicans, bound together by a love for Jesus Christ and an affection for what they describe as a "quirky parish." The parish is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island within the wider Anglican Communion and has continued, since its founding in 1885, in much the same place it began.
A Rite I Parish in the Anglo-Catholic Tradition
Ascension is a Rite I parish, meaning its Sunday services lean on the traditional language preserved in the Book of Common Prayer rather than the more contemporary phrasings adopted by many Episcopal congregations in recent decades. Traditional language is used because, as the parish puts it, "it lends a dignity and beauty to our worship" and connects worshippers to four centuries of Christian prayer. That choice sits comfortably inside the parish's self-understanding as Anglo-Catholic: a church that traces its heritage through the Church of England, embraces the creeds and the apostolic succession of bishops, retains the three orders of ordained ministry, and reclaims many of the pre-Reformation expressions of worship such as incense, the eastward-facing altar, sung mass settings, and a strong Marian devotion.
Worship is also shaped by the parish's stated beliefs. Ascension affirms the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds as its core statements of faith, confesses the bodily Resurrection of Jesus as the defining Christian claim, and believes that Christ becomes truly present in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. The parish reads scripture extensively each Sunday, including an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament epistle, and a Gospel, on a three-year lectionary cycle. Members are taught that all baptized Christians, whatever their denomination or background, are welcome to receive communion at the altar rail.
From Mission Hall to Enlarged Church: A Parish History
The story of Ascension begins in 1885, when Sylvester Gildersleeve and Francis Wilson undertook the project of securing Episcopal services for the fledgling village of Rockville Centre. With the approval of the Right Reverend Abram N. Littlejohn, first Bishop of Long Island, the two men converted Institute Hall into a worship space, furnishing it with seats and an organ; Mrs. Wilson's New York friends donated the chancel furniture. Within months the mission organized a Church School and a choir, received a carved oak baptismal font and silver Communion vessels, and took full financial responsibility for itself.
Three years later, on October 13, 1888, the cornerstone of the present church was laid. Easter Day, April 21, 1889, brought the first services in the new building, and two years later the debt was paid in full. Ascension remained a diocesan mission until 1912, when it was admitted to parochial status under its first rector, the Reverend Dennis Herbert O'Dowd. In the late 1920s the parish planted a daughter congregation, Saint Andrew's Church in Oceanside, which became an independent parish in 1955.
By the early 1940s the original building no longer held the growing congregation. A long-delayed enlargement plan, originally drawn up by vestrymen and the architect William Cross, finally began construction in 1941 and was completed by the spring of 1943. The rededication in November 1945, debt-free, was an occasion of great jubilation. In the years since, Ascension has continued as a worshipping parish under nine rectors, the most recent of whom, Father Kevin L. Morris, was called in the summer of 2012.
The Rector and His Team
Father Kevin L. Morris is the Ninth Rector of the parish and Dean of the Southwest Nassau Deanery in the Diocese of Long Island. He came to Ascension after serving as Director of Pastoral Care, Patient Relations and Volunteer Services at a hospital affiliated with the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, and as a long-term supply priest at Christ Church in Harrison, New Jersey; before that he spent three years as a staff chaplain in a Florida hospice. He was ordained deacon at Trinity Cathedral in Miami and priest at the Church of the Resurrection in New York, both in 2004. He holds a B.A. from the University of Miami (where he studied English literature and history and spent a summer at Oxford), an MDiv from Yale, and a DMin in Preaching from the University of the South, completed in 2022. He and his husband, Father Keith Voets, rector of Saint Alban the Martyr in Queens, welcomed a son, Robert David, in June 2022.
Father Kevin is supported by Kenneth Dyer, Jr., the parish's choirmaster and organist. Mr. Dyer holds a B.A. in theology from St. John's University, a B.A. in music education from Queens College, and an M.A. in urban and multicultural education from the College of Mount Saint Vincent; with more than twenty-five years of experience as a church musician, he has built an Ascension choir repertoire that ranges from Bach and Latin mass settings to spirituals and twentieth-century choral works, and he is himself a composer and arranger whose pieces are occasionally heard at the parish. Kristin Ochtera, the parish's Christian Formation leader, oversees the educational work of the parish and serves as the point of contact for those exploring formation offerings.
What Sunday Looks Like
The Sunday schedule carries two principal Eucharists. At 8:00 a.m. there is a Low Mass: a simple, spoken service of Holy Communion that lasts about thirty-five to forty minutes. At 10:30 a.m. the High Mass brings out the choir, the ceremonial, and frequently the thurible. Sung mass settings, a full choir, and congregational hymns make for a service that runs a little over an hour. Worshippers are met at the door by ushers who hand out bulletins containing the readings and the congregation's responses; standing, sitting, and kneeling are the expected postures at various points in the rite, though visitors are invited to participate at whatever level they feel comfortable, and anyone with mobility difficulties may stay seated. Children gather at 10:15 a.m. for Sunday School and rejoin their parents in time for communion at the 10:30 Mass.
Any baptized Christian may receive communion at the altar rail; those who do not wish to receive, including children whose parents prefer they wait, may cross their arms and receive a blessing. The parish's stated practice of administering communion by extension to any baptized Christian is paired with periodic first-communion classes for children in third grade or higher, graduating on Pentecost Sunday in those years. On weekdays, a Tuesday Club meets at 11:00 a.m., and occasional services of Evensong and other special offices supplement the regular schedule.
For those unable to attend in person, the 10:30 a.m. service is livestreamed, and recordings of past services are available on the parish's YouTube channel.
Children and the Children's Chapel
Ascension is unusually intentional about including children in the life of the parish. On January 5, 2015, Bishop Provenzano consecrated the altar of a new Children's Chapel, marking the completion of the Sunday School renovation and the beginning of a renewed formation program. From September through June, the children of the parish gather each Sunday at 10:15 a.m. for a brief prayer service in the Children's Chapel, a procession, weekly readings, the Lord's Prayer, confession, a collection, and the prayers of the people, followed by a short cartoon and a move to age-appropriate classrooms for hands-on learning. The children rejoin their parents upstairs in time to participate in communion at the High Mass. The Sunday School uses the Whirl lectionary-based curriculum, so the lesson children hear downstairs matches the readings heard in the main service upstairs; parents are encouraged to talk through the lesson as a family during the week.
Lisa Chiara oversees Sunday School, and additional teachers and assistants are always needed; the program is also supplemented by children's prayer breakfasts, youth-led services, an annual Christmas pageant, and the children's Christmas party. Older youth are confirmed on a rotating cycle, with Father Kevin teaching confirmation classes in alternating years with first-communion instruction.
The Choir and Sacred Music
Music is an essential part of worship at Ascension. The Ascension Choir, under Mr. Dyer's leadership, consists of five paid section leaders and a core of dedicated volunteers, and sings a broad repertoire: Latin mass settings, classic Anglican choral music, spirituals and gospel favorites, and contemporary Christian music. Members do not have to be professionals or even able to read music to audition; voices of every skill level sit alongside seasoned singers. The parish encourages anyone interested to arrange a "brief audition" with the choirmaster. Selections from a past choir recording, including Children of the Heavenly King, Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling, and Sweet Sacrament Divine, are available for listening. The role of the choir, the parish emphasizes, is not to entertain but to assist the worshipping assembly in lifting up its own prayers to God.
Forming Disciples: Adult Christian Education
Adult formation at Ascension takes several forms. Regular book discussions, seminars, newcomers' classes, and a weekly Bible study round out the year, and an annual Lenten Soup and Scripture series gathers the parish during the weeks leading to Easter. Father Kevin also teaches classes for those seeking Reception or Confirmation into the Episcopal Church. Newcomers' classes and private instruction are available for those exploring the Christian faith at length; private lessons can be arranged on request. Anyone not yet baptized who wishes to begin that journey may speak with a priest and arrange for baptism on short notice, in keeping with the parish's open-baptism policy.
Mary, Walsingham, and the Devotional Societies
Within its Anglo-Catholic identity, the parish supports two devotional societies. The Guild of All Souls is devoted to regular intercessory prayer for the departed; it sponsors an annual requiem mass for the souls of the departed and takes part in national guild services. The Society of Mary fosters devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary; members gather on the third Sunday of each month in the chapel after the 10:30 Mass to pray the rosary. The parish takes particular pride in its shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham, whose carved linden-wood statue was brought back from the shrine in Walsingham, England, by a group of Ascension pilgrims in May 2015.
Serving Beyond the Parish: Outreach
Ascension does not run a soup kitchen or food pantry, but the parish manages to feed people every week through the gifts of its members. Grocery store gift cards are offered to individuals and families in need throughout the year; food donations are regularly collected to support the food pantry at the Mary Brennan INN; and during the summer months, surplus vegetables from a community-supported agriculture share are also donated there. The parish collects books and pajamas for children in need, and around the holidays supports the surrounding community of St. John's Episcopal Hospital with donated toys at Christmas and backpacks at back-to-school time. Outreach opportunities shift with the seasons and are coordinated by Judi Broadhurst; current needs, from delivering food to a food bank to lending a hand with an ad hoc project, are announced in the bulletin.
Many Hands: Parish Ministries and Volunteer Life
Ascension's life runs on the work of volunteers who serve in clearly named ministries. Acolytes, trained to assist at the altar under Lisa Chiara, are needed for Sunday and special services. The Altar Guild, under Barbara Boylan, sets up for worship and cares for the sanctuary's vessels, vestments, and equipment. The Choir, under Ken Dyer, is always auditioning new voices. Lay Eucharistic Ministers, the parish's licensed readers and chalice bearers, coordinated by Mark Weisenreder, read the lessons, lead morning or evening offices, and assist at the altar when only one priest is serving. Ushers, under Doreen Gordon, hand out bulletins, take up the offering, and guide the procession to communion. Coffee Hour, under Emily Coyne, depends on volunteers willing to bake or buy the cake; the Friendship Fair committee, under Judi Broadhurst, is always looking for help both during and between the biennial events.
Friendship Fair and Victorian Christmas
For more than fifty years, Ascension has hosted the Friendship Fair, a large parish fundraiser held every other year on odd-numbered years, featuring a silent auction, raffles, books, collectibles, and other attractions that draw visitors from across the region. The fair is both a fundraiser and an opportunity for newcomers to encounter the parish. In addition, the parish is at work on a Victorian Christmas celebration, planned for the second weekend of December, intended as both a fundraiser and a form of soft evangelism: a "spectacle of lights," a living nativity, a Victorian street scene inside the parish hall, Santa's workshop, specialty raffles, food and drink, and family activities designed to draw neighbors in from the train and from the wider community.
The Resurrection Columbarium
The Resurrection Columbarium, consecrated on June 13, 2004, is a consecrated space on the parish grounds for the Christian inurnment of cremated remains. It is governed by a board of trustees accountable to the vestry, currently including William D. Cooper (president), Ronald Boykin, Barbara Boylan, and Kenneth G. Mensing. The columbarium is available to adult communicant members of the parish in good standing and to members of their immediate families. There are two sizes of niche: a standard niche intended to hold one or two sets of cremated remains at a right-of-use cost of $1,000 (which includes a brass nameplate and the first inurnment), and a larger "family niche" at $2,250, with a $250 fee for any subsequent inurnment. The Service of Committal from the Book of Common Prayer is offered at the mutual convenience of the family and the rector. Visits may be made during normal business hours when the church is open, and small floral arrangements may be placed in the Chapel of the Resurrection in memory of loved ones, arranged through the parish office.
Marking Life's Milestones
Beyond the columbarium, the parish offers pastoral care for the major rites of passage. Open baptism is a deliberate ministry at Ascension: any candidate may be baptized by sprinkling or immersion "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," whether infant or adult, and baptisms are arranged on short notice, including on designated "Open Baptism Sundays" where no advance arrangement is required. Anyone previously baptized with water in the name of the Trinity need not be baptized again. Adults seeking to join may be Received from another denomination or Confirmed by the bishop; previously baptized Episcopalians may move their membership by Letter of Transfer through the parish administrator. Weddings are celebrated according to the parish's published wedding policies, and funerals are prepared using a Funeral Workbook available from the parish office; the parish encourages members to plan ahead and discuss arrangements with the clergy in good time.
Ascension Today and Tomorrow
Looking after the physical plant of the parish is itself a discipleship priority. The Ascension Today and Tomorrow capital campaign, with a goal of $500,000, is funding three named projects: renovation of the Village Avenue entrance (including new code-compliant doors, an ADA-compliant ramp, a vertical platform lift, ceiling replacement, and a new ADA bathroom, with an estimated cost of $200,000 to $250,000); a complete renovation of the parish hall kitchen to bring it up to modern food-safety and fire codes (an estimated $225,000); and exterior repainting of the church and replastering and repainting of the interior worship space (an estimated $42,500). Gifts may be pledged over three years and may be paid by check, wire transfer, credit card, stock transfer, or a charitable gift annuity. Donors are encouraged to ask whether their employers offer a matching-gift program. Online pledging is available through Realm, where ordinary annual pledges, distinct from the capital campaign, also support the day-to-day operation of the parish.
A Parish Wide Open
From the start, Ascension has described itself in generous terms. "We are an Episcopal Church," the parish states, "but we welcome worshippers and visitors from any tradition or those that have no religious background at all." The parish's first step for anyone considering membership is simply to show up: attend a service, meet people at coffee hour, sign up for the weekly newsletter. Whether members are lifelong Episcopalians or new to Christianity altogether, whether they are drawn by the sung mass, the incense, the choir, the children's procession, or the quiet weekday prayer, Ascension offers them a place at the altar rail, a pew to sit in, and a parish whose long history continues to grow with each generation that walks through its doors.