The two-campus parish of Ascension/Holy Trinity, West Park, has a firmly fixed goal for its future: to graduate from the diocesan Congregational Support Plan within the next three years. The implicit optimism of the goal is due, in part, to its successful and involved collaboration with the diocesan program and staff since joining the plan in 1997.

“The diocese has been hugely helpful,” says the Rev. Jennifer Barrows, priest-in-charge of the parish. “We were starting from scratch; what we were doing before obviously wasn’t working, so we began to go to every meeting there was. When we asked for people to come up and talk to the vestry or the congregation, the response has always been not just, ‘Sure, we’ll come’, but eager to help. And that has helped enormously, because if we see ourselves separate from the diocese or even as working at different purposes, we don’t have much hope of getting anywhere.”

Barrows has been priest-in-charge of Ascension/Holy Trinity for over five years. In that time, she has seen the parish go from a status quo attitude about the Support Plan to being committed“not just to surviving, but to thriving.”
Ascension/Holy Trinity has some unique gifts and faces some unique challenges in its two-campus parish. They have about 130 members all together and make a concerted effort to combine the congregations that worship at the two buildings as often as they can. Barrow notes wryly, though, that even at churches with one building and multiple services, “separate congregations form.”

It is a challenge, but one that the parish is committed to dealing with. When they took a good look at where they were financially and with the Support Plan a few years ago, “We discovered that really we either had to get very serious about getting off [CSP] or perhaps consider selling one of our churches so that we could have enough to really develop the other – and no one wanted to do that.”

That initial decision led to a renewed attitude of commitment in the parish. “The decision was ‘Forget about it – this is doable and we’re going to do it.’ “That new attitude led to a successful stewardship campaign. “People had for many years just been in the habit of dropping regular stuff in the plate,” recounts Barrows. “We emphasized pledging and a commitment to the parish. Why should the diocese commit to us if we don’t commit to ourselves? The change was dramatic.”

The stewardship campaign was one result of a “Reform the Vision” committee that was formed three years ago when the parish began thinking about coming off of CSP. The task of the committee was “to meet and dream about who we were and who we were called to be.” Besides the stewardship campaign that eventually developed, the initial brainstorming gave way to a more and more focused look at the projects that the parish wanted to undertake.

The first “project” was to graduate from CSP. With that goal in place, the committee turned their attention to identifying outreach projects that could benefit the two communities the parish is part of – Highland and West Park. In Highland, they found a need for a community center that would serve both the middle school youth and the elderly of the area. The parish hopes to commit to that project once they are in a more stable financial position.

In West Park, the parish sees its church property as being its greatest community asset. The campus covers a number of acres and stretches down to the river. The restored parish hall is a popular venue for community events.

“We have been searching for ways to serve the community with the beauty of the campus and perhaps raise some money that will get us off CSP,” says Barrows.

“Small congregations can have an enormous mission and an enormous effect in the community,” she says.

“[It’s] the commitment of a rather small group of people who have a job to do. It’s called the Gospel, I guess.”

Being part of the Support Plan, though, has also given the parish a wider perspective on its work. “CSP offered such a wonderful opportunity to incorporate the diocese in the life of the parish and the parish in the life of the diocese. It’s so easy to become isolated, that Congregational Support and Property Support – not just the money, but the people – have stopped that from happening. We wish to become a vital part of the entire diocese and all that’s going on in it. I can’t say how important that is to feel a part of the larger body of Christ.”