Community OutReach

The Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Stillwater is known for its outreach to the greater community and the world.  We concentrate our work in several ongoing projects:

Our Community Kitchen (OCK) is a community collaboration of several organizations which Ascension helped start and which is incubated in our parish kitchen.  OCK’s mission is to provide access to healthy food for all through cooking and eating, and they do this through a variety of means, from teaching cooking to serving meals.  Every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. volunteers cook up a tasty breakfast for people from all walks of life.  Those who can, donate for their breakfast, and others eat free.  OCK sources locally grown and seasonal fruits and vegetables.  It hosts cooking events to teach about how to cook and eat more healthy.

Last Sunday Supper: For many years, Ascension has hosted a dinner on the last Sunday of each month for those in need.  Four other faith communities team up with Ascension to provide the meal each month.

Episcopal Community Services (ECS): offers long-term services for single mothers and children.  They have offices across the state including one at the Ascension church offices, staffed by social worker Cindy Parsons. Ascension supports several of the various programs that ECS offers, most notably the “Moving Forward Together,” program in which the parish sponsors a family for a year, supplying a comprehensive set of needs, including a group of parishioners who collaborate with the family to identify needs and opportunities for cycling out of poverty.

Food Shelf
Valley Outreach, Inc. has been feeding our hungry neighbors since 1983. They currently give more than 36,000 pounds of food to nearly 400 hungry households every month through the Food Shelf, and give clothing, accessories, and household essentials to more than 200 households every month.  Ascension members donate time to deliver and sort food, do winter clothing drives, and donate financially to Valley Outreach’s Emergency Fund.
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Youth and Children: Each month younger members are involved in some kind of mission work.  Whether it is visiting a local nursing home, raising money for a global project like Episcopal Relief and Development, or volunteering for and learning about those in need, the youth and children of our parish do an enormous amount to serve others.  Two favorite projects are the 30-hour famine to raise money for the hungry and Boxing Out Poverty an overnight project to serve homeless teens.

Global Mission: Overseas the parish has supported the education of Africans in this country, raised money for Books for Africa, and built toilets in Mozambique. The church is currently interviewing partnering agencies for a mission trip to Mexico or Guatemala in 2013.

Community Speakers: Quarterly, Ascension hosts a nationally-known speaker on a topic of interest for the community.  Past speakers include Jerene Mortenson, mother of Greg Mortenson who builds schools in Afghanistan; Gao Kalia Yang, the celebrated young Hmong writer; Dr. Henry Emmons, author of Chemistry of Joy and Chemistry of Calm; and Patrick Atkinson, founder of God’s Child Project and U.N. advisor on Human Trafficking.