Your light must shine in the sight of all people
so that, seeing your good works,
they may give praise to your Father in heaven.
-- Matthew 5:16
Our Outreach Committee meets once a month on the 4th Sunday of the month in the Parish Hall at 8:50 am to identify community needs as well as to recruit and organize parish volunteers for specific projects. We act as stewards to the least, the last, and the lost.
In response to a need for quality childcare for families and single parents struggling to make ends meet, Ascension members started Bright Star Early Learning Center in 1999 as a preschool and day care program. Over the last decade, the happy sounds of Bright Star’s children have filled the empty rooms of the church building during the week. Over time, Bright Star has evolved into an independent organization, with a fund that offers financial aid to parents with high need. Bright Star not only serves some of our own church families, but it also welcomes the wider community into our facilities.
Ascension also works hard to provide relief to those suffering and in need beyond our immediate neighborhood through various outreach programs:
- On Loaves and Fishes Sunday each year, we collect hundreds of pounds of food to deliver to Metro Caring, a non-profit emergency food pantry for needy families.
- We provide both volunteer services, such as laundry and clothing processing, and financial support to the St. Francis Center serving Denver’s homeless population.
- We support the Colorado Haiti Project. In addition to our financial support, Ascension has sent work teams to perform services on site.
- We support local refugees settled in our community by the Ecumenical Refugee Services. Parish members volunteer with new arrivals and provide clothes and household goods to those in need.
- We offer emergency assistance from our food pantry to people in need who walk into the church.
- In coordination with the Care Committee, we also have a “meals on wheels” ministry that provides meals upon request to ill or homebound parish members.
- We give to Episcopal Relief and Development, St. Clare’s Kitchen, Food Bank of the Rockies, Fleece Navidad, and the Ascension Request for Assistance Funds.
Please contact Barbara Watson at barbarawatson825@comcast.net if you would like to get more involved in outreach at Ascension.
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
And when did we see you sick
or in prison and visit you?”
And the Lord said,
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one
of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
-- Matthew 25:37-40
