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Church of the Ascension Mission |
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Services |
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Church of the Ascension in Copperopolis, California is a mission church in the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. The Anglican Communion is a world-wide fellowship of churches within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, in communion with the See of Canterbury and thus with each other. Our First Years: April 1997 both the Bishop of San Joaquin John-David Schofield and Fr. Bob Rhodes, Rector of St. Matthew's Church in San Andreas, agreed it was time to plant a church in Copperopolis. In response to a call from both God and His Church, Fr. Jim and Pam Stout moved to Copperopolis, and a new parochial mission came into being: Church of the Ascension, Copperopolis. To broadcast the new mission, Fr. Jim and Pam set up a booth at the Copperopolis Homecoming in June of 1997 and distributed information and pamphlets to all who were interested. A short month later the Stouts had a mass followed with a fellowship dinner at their home. Two weeks later, joined with musicians and worshipers from St. Matthews, San Andreas, and St. Edward's, San Jose, an evening celebration of Holy Eucharist converted Outcast Hall in Poker Flat into a church for a little while. As October waned, Church of the Ascension held its last service in Outcast Hall. Ken Rutherford, one of our very first and much loved parishioners, was in ill health and moved to Oregon to be with his sister. He offered his home on Acorn Street to be used as our church. With a leap of faith we moved from Poker Flat to Acorn Street and changed our service from 6 pm to 11 am on Sundays. We also held mid-week services, bible studies and men's breakfast and bible studies on Saturday mornings. Our last service At the Acorn house was held June 13, 1999. We put most of our furniture into storage and moved to the Historical Armory on Main Street for Sunday services. The church office (along with a multitude of activities) moved to Fr. Jim and Pam's home. We're Growing: At the time of our move into the Armory we had an average Sunday Attendance of 17. We now average 36 plus. We have a Church School which meets at 9:30 AM, On October 20, 2001, a little over two months past our 4th birthday, Church of the Ascension was received into the Diocese of San Joaquin as a Diocesan Mission, which gives us voice and vote in the larger Church. We are presently looking at obtaining land in the near future. This will open the next chapter of our life together in the Copperopolis area. |
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