Church of the Ascension (Clearwater, Florida)

Church of the Ascension is an Episcopal church in Clearwater, Florida

Clearwater, Florida

Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...

. Its name comes from the words of one of the founders, "It was a miracle the way our church did ascend from our prayers". The church is located in the Harbor Oaks Residential District

Harbor Oaks Residential District

The Harbor Oaks Residential District is a U.S. historic district located in Clearwater, Florida. The district is bounded by Druid Road, South Fort Harrison Avenue, Lotus Path, and Clearwater Harbor. It contains 81 historic buildings and 6 objects.-External links:* at...

and is considered by many locally to be an important historic site. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/50279569.html?dids=50279569:50279569&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+24%2C+1990&author=AMELIA+DAVIS&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.1&desc=Historic+sites+dot+land+along+harbor The church also has a 75 feet (22.9 m) carillon, the Betty Jane Dimmitt Memorial Carillon, which has 49 bells and is one of just four such towers in the state of Florida. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/96521668.html?dids=96521668:96521668&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+22%2C+2001&author=EILEEN+SCHULTE&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=8&desc=Mystical+chords+Series%3A+RELIGION

In addition to the organ and the carillon, the church's current building, built in gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

style around 1925, features 28 stained glass windows (the oldest of which dates back to 1895) which feature, among other things, the Ascension of Jesus Christ (in a large window over the altar), the Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

, the parable of the Good Shepherd, the parable of the Lost Son, and the "war window" where a candle is lit in remembrance of the Iraq war. Many have gone to pray at this window for loved ones involved in the war. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/321105721.html?dids=321105721:321105721&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Apr+3%2C+2003&author=&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Hope+burns+bright+on+home+front, http://www.churchofascension.org/photo%20gallery%201.pdf

History

The church was founded 1885, when sixteen people met in a home to organize a new
church. http://www.churchofascension.org/about%20us.pdf As the church grew the still small congregation moved the church into several other buildings before it was moved to its current location near downtown Clearwater. The church nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

was extended later to its current size to include a balcony (where the organ console sits) and an increase in the seating capacity.

When Saint Paul's School first opened in 1968, classes were housed at the church.

In 1982, church member Larry Dimmit donated the Betty Jane Dimmit Memorial Carillon, composed of 49 cast bronze bells from the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry

Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry

Royal Eijsbouts is a bell foundry located in Asten, Netherlands.The workshop was founded in 1872 by Bonaventura Eijsbouts as a "factory for tower clocks." In 1893 Eijsbouts was joined by his 15 year old son, Johan, and the workshop expanded to begin supplying striking and swinging bells, which...

in the Netherlands, http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/37418978.html?dids=37418978:37418978&FMT=FT&FMTS=CITE:FT&date=Dec+19%2C+1998&author=LAURA+T.+COFFEY&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=8&desc=RELIGION+BRIEFLY+Series%3A+++RELIGION+BRIEFLY which was installed on Dec. 5 of that year. The bells are now played at least weekly before or after church services, although in the 2001 Christmas season, the bells were played daily in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/96521668.html?dids=96521668:96521668&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+22%2C+2001&author=EILEEN+SCHULTE&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=8&desc=Mystical+chords+Series%3A+RELIGION

In 2003 the church installed a new pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

by Orgues Létourneau

Orgues Létourneau

Orgues Létourneau Limitée of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec is a prominent Canadian builder and restorer of pipe organs. The company was founded in 1979 by Fernand Létourneau, its president, owner and artistic director....

, which is the ninth largest in Florida (by number of ranks) with 4,182 pipes (3,235 in the Gallery and 947 in the Chancel) and 78 ranks. http://www.die-orgelseite.de/orgelliste_e.php

The church currently lists approximately 285 families as members. , Carol Schwenke, the first woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida

Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida

The Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America in Florida which extends from Marco Island on the south, to Brooksville on the north, and inland to Plant City, Arcadia and LaBelle on the east...

, serves as Sunday assistant.

Unique Events

The church is unique in Pinellas County for offering The Alpha Marriage Course, and is one of few churches that celebrates the medieval Epiphany

Epiphany (Christian)

Epiphany, or Theophany, meaning "vision of God",...

-oriented Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival, which features the choir and clergy in medieval costume (as, for example, beefeaters) and reenactments in song of popular stories such as the three kings and Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas

"Good King Wenceslas" is a popular Christmas carol about a king who goes out to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen . During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step,...

. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/98248681.html?dids=98248681:98248681&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+5%2C+2002&author=EILEEN+SCHULTE&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=8&desc=Full-boar+pageant+Series%3A+RELIGION

Outreach

The church is a focal point for several outreach programs.

SHARE (Self-Help and Resource Exchange) program http://www.shareflorida.org/directory_pinellas.htm.
RCS (Religious Community Services) http://www.rcshelps.com/pressreleases.htm
Habitat for Humanity - The church in September 2006 helped fund and has begun to help build a house in Clearwater http://www.habitat.org/script/link.aspx?url=www.phfh.org

The church also participates in various Episcopal charities, such as the Episcopal Relief and Development program. The church regularly participates in "mission trips;" in 2004 and 2005, parishioners went to the Dominican Republic to help reconstruct a church, and from 1999–2002, the Ascension senior youth group went to the Wind River Indian Reservation

Wind River Indian Reservation

Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the central western portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming...

to repair a decrepit fellowship center.

History

Unique Events

Outreach

Further reading