Church of the Ascension is an

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

church in

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a populat ...

. 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 and is considered by many locally to be an important historic site. The church also has a carillon, the Betty Jane Dimmitt Memorial Carillon, which has 49 bells and is one of just four such towers in the state of Florida. "Mystical chords Series"
''St. Petersburg Times'' (December 22, 2001). In addition to the organ and the carillon, the church's current building, built in

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

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, 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.

History

According to its website, the church was founded 1885, when sixteen people met in a home to organize a new church. 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 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 in the Netherlands, 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 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. In 2003 the church installed a new

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

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

, serves as Sunday assistant.

Unique Events

The church is unique in Pinellas County for offering The Alpha Marriage Course.

Outreach

The church is a focal point for several outreach programs. * SHARE (Self-Help and Resource Exchange) program * RCS (Religious Community Services) *

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...

- The church in September 2006 helped fund and has begun to help build a house in Clearwater"Breaking New Ground with the Episcopal Community"
Pinellas Habitat for Humanity (archived October 15, 2006). 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 to repair a decrepit fellowship center.

History

Unique Events

Outreach

References

Further reading