History

History of Church of the Ascension, Sligo Parish

The Origins

New Mission Chapel 1929

Ascension had its beginning as a mission church. In 1920, Dr. J. Henning Nelms, rector of historic Grace Episcopal Church in north Silver Spring, had the idea that the central area of the town could support an Episcopal church of its own. He and a local kindergarten teacher worked together to organize a children’s church and choir to meet at a fire station on Georgia Avenue. In May 1921, the Diocese of Washington authorized the firehouse church as Holy Innocents Mission and proceeded to assemble a property suitable for construction of a church building nearby on Sligo Avenue.

New Sanctuary 1930

By 1928, the Diocese had erected a white frame chapel facing Sligo Avenue, and the first services were held there in June 1929. The Diocese recognized the momentum generated by the enthusiastic congregation and began planning a larger, more permanent building. Less than a year later, ground was broken for the present stone sanctuary, designed in the traditional style of an English country parish church. The first service was held on Thanksgiving Day, 1930, and the church was renamed Church of the Ascension in honor of Dr. Nelms’ beloved former parish.

Sanctuary and Parish Hall 1954

Ascension grew and flourished in the early 1930s. The original white frame chapel, moved back on the property toward Silver Spring Avenue, was used as a parish hall. The first vicars helped church members weather the shocks and changes of the Depression years through community groups for pastoral and social activities. And fulfilling a vow it had made at the outset, in 1938 the congregation graduated from mission status, becoming self-sustaining as Church of the Ascension, Sligo Parish.

Ascension House

The Late 1930s, 1940s, and Early 1950s

Silver Spring began to change dramatically in the late 1930s. Apartment complexes and duplex housing grew up around Silver Spring’s heart. The new parish grew rapidly to accommodate new neighbors and new families. With the late 1940s baby boom, the rectors focused on developing Sunday school, youth and music programs. The parish undertook to expand the physical plant, constructing a rectory in 1949 (which is now known as Ascension House) and a new parish hall in 1954, replacing the old frame building.

The Late 1950s and 1960s

Social unrest and change crept through central Silver Spring starting in the late 1950s. Some parish families moved away from the immediate neighborhood, driving back only for church on Sunday. Ascension responded by slowly reaching out to those beyond the existing parish family.
In 1967, the Rev. Roland M. Jones began a strong program of social action at Ascension, bringing the first black family into the all-white congregation. Soon diversity was well established throughout the congregation. The Rev. Jones encouraged the parish to offer space to people outside the church, including civic groups like neighborhood associations and support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

The 1970s

During his tenure and that of his successor, the Rev. John Evans, the church continued to expand its social programs, holding services in nursing homes and providing English tutoring for Cuban refugees and for students at East Silver Spring Elementary School. Within the church, lay chalicists began serving, the first female lay readers appeared, and the first female Senior Warden was elected. However, following the national trend of most mainline Protestant denominations, Ascension’s Sunday church attendance began to fall off, decreasing by a quarter from 1975 to 1980.

In 1979, Ascension called its first African-American rector, the Rev. Joel Gibson. Silver Spring was beginning to feel its way into urban renewal and community-building; church members intensified their support for local ministries for the hungry and homeless. Ascension began offering a six-week summer program to neighborhood children. The rector’s wife led a guitar group that added talented musicians and a folk-blues-soul blend to Sunday worship.

The 1980s and Early 1990s

In 1985, the Rev. Gibson accepted a call from Trinity Church in New York City and was succeeded the following year by the Rev. Emmett Jarrett, who led Ascension into further expanding social ministries. Our interim rector during the period between the Revs. Gibson and Jarrett, the Rev. Thelma Smullen, was the first woman to serve as priest at Ascension. In 1990, the national Episcopal Church designated Ascension as a Center of Jubilee Ministry. Companion parish relationships were established with congregations in Africa, and Ascension began to attract local residents with roots in several African and Caribbean countries.

Not all members of the parish shared the Rev. Jarrett’s vision of Ascension. During the last years of his tenure, Ascension struggled through a period of intra-congregational conflict regarding program direction and ministry priorities, culminating in the abrupt transfer by a number of parishioners to other congregations. Sunday attendance fell for a while, but those who remained closed ranks behind the Rev. Jarrett’s ministry, and with the help of a professional facilitator and dedicated lay leadership, the parish began to heal.

The 1990s

In 1994, the Rev. Jarrett accepted a call from a large parish in suburban Atlanta. The following year, Ascension called the Rev. Mary Sulerud, who brought considerable organizational skills and an inspiring vision of physical and spiritual growth to the parish. Attendance gradually recovered to the levels of the early 1980s, Sunday school classes swelled with new students, a lively Music at Ascension program brought concerts by outside performers to the church, and parish business practices, including book- and record-keeping, were brought up to date.

The social ministries begun during the Rev. Jarrett’s tenure continued, including among others companion parish relationships abroad, adult and child tutoring, and ministries to the hungry and homeless. New programs included Education for Ministry, Journey to Adulthood, and the local Industrial Areas Foundation affiliate, Action in Montgomery (AIM). As it had in the 1940s and 1950s, greater Silver Spring was expanding and revitalizing in the late 1990s–and Ascension accepted similar challenges. The congregation made a leap of faith in 2000-2001 by undertaking a major renovation of its facilities, recognizing that an obsolete and deteriorating physical plant was not supporting our ministries in the community and might hinder our prospects of growth.

The 2000s

In January 2003, the Rev. Sulerud left Ascension to take up a position on the staff of the Bishop of Washington. The congregation began a difficult transitional period as the financial challenges of the renovation became increasingly apparent. Pledge income was not sufficient for the first interim rector to continue on a full-time basis and the rector search process had to be suspended due to budgetary uncertainty. But the congregation persevered and redoubled its support. A new interim rector was called in 2004 and placed on a full-time basis in 2005, and the rector search was reinitiated, resulting in a call to the current rector, the Rev. Dr. Joan Beilstein, in 2007.

The calling of the Rev. Joan, a woman partnered with (and later married to) another woman, represented a continuing recognition and expansion of congregational diversity. Many LGBTQ+ people, both those already attending and those new to the parish, have felt comfortable and validated in their Ascension membership.

Ascension also approved the calling of the Rev. Terri Murphy as deacon. In addition to her duties in pastoral care and youth and adult education, she also brought a major focus on community involvement and outreach in collaboration with strong lay leadership. Though a relatively small congregation, Ascension proved it could punch above its weight as a voice for social justice, either on its own or in partnership with local non-profit agencies, including a ministry to the street homeless, a Little Free Pantry and Library, the Shepherd’s Table program providing meals for the homeless, and the Tommy’s Pantry food distribution program. Relationships continued with congregations in South Africa, Liberia, and Honduras.

The 2010s

By the mid-2010s, it became clear that further modifications to the physical plant were urgently needed. A plan was developed to overhaul the heating system, provide air conditioning to the sanctuary and other spaces, and repair the roof and deteriorating stone walls of the church. Mindful of the mortgage burden created by the 2000 renovation, Ascension elected to finance the new work by a pay-as-you-go capital campaign. Over $500,000 was raised from members’ pledges for this purpose, obviating the need for further borrowing. Two columbaria were constructed on the premises to receive remains of church members and their families.

The 2020s

As with many congregations, the Covid-19 pandemic brought severe challenges to Ascension’s ongoing viability. Fortunately, Ascension was blessed with a tech-savvy music minister, who set up a livestream team for church services to keep the congregation engaged through months of closure of the physical plant. The use of remote technology continued even after the church reopened, for those who cannot attend services and to facilitate Vestry and other group meetings. More recently, the music minister and parish leadership reached out to the community to make Ascension a center of participative music performance in solidarity with persons impacted by current immigration policy, sponsoring numerous events with participants from within and outside the church community.

Ascension parishioners today come from a diversity of national and ethnic backgrounds, as well as gender orientations. With many firm ties to projects in Silver Spring and abroad, and a vision that reaches out to the community in both practical and spiritual ways, Ascension looks ahead eagerly to the next part of our journey with Christ.