At the corner of South Summit Avenue and Route 355, near Old Town Gaithersburg, stands the Episcopal Church of the Ascension - a parish founded in 1882 as a mission of Christ Church, Rockville, and now the oldest church in the largest city in Montgomery County. From its brick main church and its adjoining chapel, Ascension runs three Sunday Eucharists each week, one of them entirely in Spanish, and serves the surrounding community through a MobileMed medical clinic, a food-pantry partnership, a soup-kitchen rotation, and a year-round program of Christian formation that stretches from preschool through the Wednesday morning book club.
The Oldest Church in Gaithersburg
The story of Ascension begins in the late nineteenth century, when the Church of England had already been established on Maryland soil for almost two hundred years. The parish was organized in 1882 as a mission of Christ Church, Rockville, and has remained a continuous witness on the same corner ever since. As Gaithersburg grew from a small railway stop into the largest city in Montgomery County, Ascension grew with it - and the campus reflects that growth in three distinct buildings arranged along the South Summit block.
The modern main church, a brick building completed in 1982, replaced an earlier sanctuary and gave the parish the larger nave that its growing congregation needed. A decade later came the education and administration building, which houses Sunday school classrooms, the parish offices, and Ascension House, where much of the outreach work happens. Older still, and historically the most intimate of the three buildings, is Ascension Chapel. The chapel underwent a major renovation beginning in the late 1990s and was returned to worship and meeting service in 2003, adding much-needed capacity for the parish. Today it hosts small weddings and funerals, weekday prayer, and Sunday morning worship for up to about a hundred people.
The parish describes its calling in a single sentence: "Representing Christ Wherever We May Be." Its vision statement is longer: "The Church of the Ascension carries on Christ's work of respecting the dignity of all people and valuing all differences. We are a community of faith ministering to all by living out Christ's charge to love our neighbor as ourselves. Together we shine God's light in the world."
Three Sunday Eucharists, One Table
Ascension offers three distinct Sunday liturgies, all held in the main church and all open to anyone who walks through the door.
At 8:00 a.m., the earliest service is what the parish calls its "quiet, classic Episcopal Prayer Book liturgy" - a spoken service with no music, suited to those who prefer a more contemplative beginning to the day.
At 10:00 a.m., the heart of the Sunday morning takes shape. This Eucharist is a blend of classic Episcopal liturgy and a more contemporary Eucharistic celebration, supported by the Ascension Choir and the pipe organ, with hymns drawn from The Hymnal 1982, Wonder, Love, and Praise, and Lift Every Voice and Sing. The service usually follows Rite II from the Book of Common Prayer but shifts to Rite I during Lent, returning to the Elizabethan language of the English Reformation. Children leave for Sunday school partway through the service and rejoin their families before the Eucharist.
At 12:00 noon, the Spanish-language Eucharist takes the same altar. Hymn texts are drawn mostly from Flor y Canto, accompanied by a music ensemble that includes piano and the Spanish choir. Bulletins for all three services are available each week.
All three services are streamed online, and the 10:00 and 12:00 services are broadcast over Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. The Zoom meeting ID for the 8:00 and 10:00 services is 941 3360 0093 (passcode 1234); a separate Zoom channel is used for the noon Spanish service (meeting ID 954 9346 3059, same passcode).
The parish describes its overall worship style as respectful and reverent without taking itself too seriously. Beyond the prayers of the Book of Common Prayer that frame every liturgy, Ascension services are often punctuated with laughter and spontaneity. Congregational singing is taken seriously here, and hymnody draws on The Hymnal 1982 along with Lift Every Voice and Sing II, Wonder, Love and Praise, and Gather - a collection that features music and texts from living composers.
The Casavant Opus and Two Choirs
Music drives the 10:00 a.m. Eucharist. The instrument that anchors that music is a Casavant Freres pipe organ, Opus 3801, a 23-rank, two-manual instrument installed in January 2001 and voiced in the French style. Its console sits on a moveable platform that can be rolled to the center of the chancel for recitals and concerts, and the organ itself shares a small portion of the front wall of the sanctuary to the left of the main axis. The instrument was made possible by a gift from a long-time Ascension choir member who wanted the parish to have an organ worthy of the Episcopal musical tradition. The organ's rich diapasons, melodious flute stops, and energetic reeds make it equally at home accompanying congregational hymns, supporting the choirs, and playing solo.
The Ascension Choir is a volunteer group of roughly eighteen to twenty singers, recruited from the congregation as a whole, who lead worship at the 10:00 Eucharist between September and early June. The choir rehearses on Thursday evenings during the program year, and the ability to read music is helpful but not required. The choir welcomes singers of all ages and skill levels.
A separate Spanish choir accompanies the noon liturgy and brings its own blend of Latin American hymnody to the Sunday schedule under the leadership of a long-time Ascension musician. The two choirs share the same liturgical calendar but speak, quite literally, in two musical languages.
From Godly Play to Book Group
Ascension takes Christian formation seriously at every stage of life. The parish follows a diocesan requirement that two adults work together with groups of children, and the curriculum for the youngest members is the Montessori-based Godly Play program.
For children from preschool through fifth grade, Godly Play Sunday school meets during the 10:00 and 12:00 services, September through June, both in person and over Zoom. Each class opens with music and movement - "This is the Day the Lord has Made" and simple yoga - before a storyteller tells a sacred story using Godly Play materials. The children then explore "wondering questions" such as "I wonder what part of the story you liked best?" and "I wonder what part of the story is about you?" Crafts, prayer, and thanksgiving close the class, and the children rejoin their families in the nave in time for the Eucharist. Children joining virtually are mailed craft materials to use at home.
Around the edges of the church year, the children take the parish's calendar in hand. There is a Christmas pageant on the Sunday closest to Epiphany; a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper with a parade and mask-making; an Easter egg hunt after Sunday worship; Children's Sunday on a One Ascension Sunday each year - a bilingual service when children plan the entire liturgy, take most of the readings, and preach by acting out a Godly Play lesson; and a half-day Vacation Bible School in the last week of June, open to preschoolers through fifth graders from the parish and the wider community. Year-round nursery care is offered for younger children who are not yet ready to sit through a lesson, and for older children when Sunday school is not in session.
For young people in sixth grade and older - and for Ascension alumni visiting home from college - the Youth Group meets on the second and fourth Sundays of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The format centers on the parish's three "F's": Food, Formation, and Fun. Each fall begins with a cookout where students brainstorm themes for the year ahead, and the curriculum is largely written in-house, drawn from real-world events and kept simple and biblically based.
Each summer the youth travel to a week of mission and fellowship. For more than a decade that work has focused on St. James School in Philadelphia, a middle school serving students from severely under-resourced communities; recent summers have sent Ascension youth to North Bay on Maryland's Eastern Shore as camp counselors for the same students. The youth also run their own Sunday each year, planning and leading the liturgy from beginning to end and asking the high school seniors to preach the homily.
For adults, the Wednesday Morning Book Group gathers at 10:00 a.m. each week to discuss books that span Christian theology, comparative religion, history, science, and society. The current selection is "The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together" by Heather McGhee. The group's recent reading list ranges from "So You Want to Talk about Race" by Ijeoma Oluo to "The Universal Christ" by Richard Rohr to "Brief Answers to the Big Questions" by Stephen Hawking.
For deeper study, Ascension offers Education for Ministry, a four-year certificate program from the School of Theology at the University of the South covering the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the history of Christianity after the first Christians, and the development of the church in the modern world. The program meets Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. over Zoom and welcomes anyone interested in serious theological study, regardless of academic background.
Adult education continues throughout the church year with short classes, workshops, Advent and Lenten devotionals, and an annual round of retreats that includes a Men's Retreat, a Silent Retreat, and a Women's Retreat. Adult Baptism and Confirmation preparation meets during Lent.
Inside or beside the church, members and visitors can also walk the parish labyrinth, an indoor and outdoor canvas model created by the Labyrinth Company in Baltimore and funded through donations to the church's memorial fund. It is a six-circuit path loosely patterned after the labyrinth inlaid into the floor of Chartres Cathedral, offered as a tool for prayer and meditation. Three stages frame a typical walk - Shedding (purgation) on the way in, Illumination at the center, and Union on the way out. There is only one path, no dead ends, and the parish encourages quiet reflection as the walker approaches the center.
MobileMed, Soup Kitchens, and a Food Pantry
The parish's mission to serve its community as apostles of Christ shows up most visibly in a long list of partnerships that Ascension has sustained for years.
In Ascension House, on the parish's own campus, MobileMed's medical van parks every Tuesday beginning at 8:30 a.m. The clinic provides low-cost or free medical care to uninsured patients. Volunteers from Ascension serve as hosts for the morning, welcoming patients and keeping the operation running.
Members of Ascension prepare and serve dinner at the Lord's Table Soup Kitchen at St. Martin's Roman Catholic Church several times each month - on the first Saturday and the third Monday, from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. The parish's youth help serve on the first Friday of each month. The Lord's Table provides hot meals Monday through Saturday at St. Martin's, and Ascension is one of several congregations keeping that kitchen open.
Food collected at the back of the church each Sunday helps to stock the pantry at Gaithersburg HELP, an emergency-assistance organization based a short drive from the church. HELP provides a three-day supply of food by appointment, along with diapers, infant formula, emergency prescriptions, transportation to medical appointments, and short-term financial help. The agency does not ask about immigration status.
During Lent, parishioners are invited to forgo small luxuries and drop the money saved into the parish rice bowl, a wooden bowl that is placed at the steps as worshippers go up to receive communion, symbolizing the poverty of much of the world.
In August each year Ascension packs backpacks with school supplies to support the Linkages to Learning program at Summit Hall Elementary School, the public school in the neighborhood around the church.
A separate ministry, Outreach for Immigrants, gathers resources for the sizable immigrant community in and around Gaithersburg. The parish maintains a notebook at Ascension House of agencies that do not ask about immigration status before offering help, and supports CASA of Maryland, the Literacy Council of Montgomery County, the Spanish Catholic Center, the Hans Rosenfeld Upcounty Interfaith Clothing Center, the Holy Cross Primary Care Health Clinic, the Manna Food Center, the Upper Montgomery County Assistance Network, and the St. Martin's food pantry. CASA, in particular, is named for the legal, employment, health, and education services it provides to low-income immigrants across the region.
The Outreach Steering Committee, made up of Ascension parishioners, meets monthly to help guide and direct the parish's outreach efforts and to evaluate which new community partnerships to take on each year. Other parish outreach includes a monthly cancer support group for those diagnosed with cancer and their loved ones.
Pastoral Care, Sacraments, and a Columbarium
The Pastoral Care Committee at Ascension extends the church's ministry to the whole person - body, mind, and spirit. Pastoral Partners offer one-on-one caring for seniors and shut-ins. After Sunday services the altar flowers are delivered to parish members who might need extra brightness in their week. Members lead a weekly Sunday Communion service at Sunrise Village House for seniors who cannot easily come to church, and services are held at Asbury the last Wednesday of each month, with a monthly "Souper Seniors" luncheon on the third Thursday.
The full sacramental life of the Episcopal Church is offered at Ascension. Baptism is performed four times each year during the main church services, after required preparation for parents or adult candidates. Confirmation - both for youth and adults - usually takes place at the Washington National Cathedral in a service that gathers many parishes of the Diocese of Washington. The clergy guide couples through marriage preparation, a four-to-six-month process that includes an "imago" workshop and special permission from the bishop if either partner has been divorced, with additional requirements for a third marriage. The priests also officiate weddings for same-gender couples under District of Columbia law. Funerals are supported around the clock by the clergy, and cremation is recognized as a fully Anglican practice.
For families who choose cremation, the Grey Harman Froelich Memorial Columbarium, located along the north wall of the church, provides a permanent resting place for the cremated remains of loved ones. Use of the columbarium is governed by the vestry, and applications are processed through the parish office. The columbarium is one of the longer-established such facilities in the diocese.
A Welcome Without Reservation
Ascension describes itself as a community of "unconditional welcome, inviting anyone to our worship community." It is one of the longer-standing Episcopal parishes to formally adopt a policy of welcome for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning people - an affirmation the vestry adopted in 2012 in concert with Integrity USA. The parish has registered that welcome with Integrity and lives it out through the year. Each June, the parish joins Rockville Pride as part of its calendar of annual events.
The parish's stated beliefs, drawn from a statement by a long-time parishioner, run in four lines. First, God continues to be revealed in all cultures in every era, and Ascension treasures the opportunities for mutual evangelism it encounters in its church and in its world. Second, worship is a celebration of God's abiding love, and the parish works to speak newcomers' languages and meet them in the cultures of their homes. Third, Christianity means action: Ascension sees a fundamental connection between the freely given life of Christ and the giving of the parish's own life in the service of others. Fourth, the Christian journey is lifelong, pursued through study, prayer, and shared spiritual practice.
Ascension is a parish of the Diocese of Washington within The Episcopal Church, and through The Episcopal Church it shares in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its parishioners mirror the global diversity that runs through the Anglican world, and the diocese itself encompasses about eighty-six congregations across the Washington area - tied together, in part, by the Washington National Cathedral, where confirmations for Ascension's youth and adults often take place.
The clergy who lead the parish today are The Rev. Javier Garcia Ocampo as rector, who came to Ascension from a decade of ministry in the Diocese of Mexico City; The Rev. Tracey Forfa, ordained as an Episcopal priest after a career as a federal regulator, who serves as pastoral associate; and The Rev. Rosa Briones, a Honduran-born deacon who joined Ascension after more than twenty years at a parish in Hyattsville. Etienne Zhou, a piano doctorate candidate at the Catholic University of America, serves as the parish's minister of music, and a long-time Ascension musician directs the Spanish choir and communications. The parish offices at 205 South Summit Avenue are open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
That blend of breadth and depth - old enough to be the cornerstone of Gaithersburg's spiritual life, new enough in its welcome to keep drawing in neighbors of every language and background - is the simplest summary of who the Episcopal Church of the Ascension is. From the early prayer-book quiet of its 8:00 a.m. Eucharist through the bilingual Sunday school classrooms, the MobileMed clinic next door, and the Casavant organ's full-throated hymn in the middle of the morning, Ascension continues to live out a single sentence: Representing Christ Wherever We May Be.