DATE: Friday, May 9, 1997                   TAG: 9705090667

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   89 lines

ASCENSION PARISH CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY BISHOP SULLIVAN, TWO FORMER PASTORS AND A RABBI JOIN THE FESTIVITIES.

In the spring of 1972, the Rev. Robert French and 70 enthusiastic Catholics in search of a church home gathered for the first time to celebrate Mass in a small parish house in Larkspur.

The enthusiasm of the Norfolk-born priest and the young families who were moving into Kempsville as fast as strawberry fields and dairy farms could be turned into subdivisions was contagious.

Taking to heart the Vatican II documents from Rome, particularly those that enjoined Catholics to embrace and serve the greater community outside their denomination, Church of The Ascension quickly became a center of religious and social activity in the expanding neighborhood.

Thursday evening, with a parish numbering more than 1,000, church members and friends met to celebrate another Mass. Presided over by Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, this one marked the 25th anniversary of the church.

For many in the congregation, it was a time of reflection. Mary Ann DeLuca of Chesapeake recalled her first day as a member of the parish. The DeLucas arrived in Virginia Beach on the day in 1975 when the church's permanent building on Princess Anne Road was dedicated.

``We changed clothes just in time to get to Mass,'' DeLuca said. ``I cried through the whole service because I didn't want to be here. But by the time it was over, everyone was so welcoming that I realized somebody really did care that I was there. I really love this church,'' she added.

The welcoming spirit that DeLuca experienced is one of many things that the Kempsville parish has prided itself on over the years.

From its beginnings, there was little that was traditional about Ascension. For Catholics who had grown up when altars were against the wall, priests said the Mass in Latin with their backs to the congregation and those of other faiths were looked on with suspicion, a visit to the Kempsville parish in the early days was somewhat akin to taking a bucket of cold water in the face.

It had been less than 10 years since the changes initiated by Pope John XXIII had been instituted and many Catholics, including some bishops and priests, still attempted to cling to the old ways.

French would have none of it. He enthusiastically supported such innovations as a charismatic prayer group, guitar music and modern dances during services and a reaching out to those of other faiths. ``Our bishop wanted everything implemented from Vatican II, including legitimate experimentation,'' French said.

When people complained about some of those experiments, French had a ready answer. ``Your choice is to be a Vatican II parish or go elsewhere,'' he told the dissidents. Few left.

Community commitment has always been high on the list of parish priorities, as symbolized by the shopping cart that is a permanent fixture in the commons area outside the sanctuary.

Parish members and others who use the church for gatherings routinely enter carrying canned goods which they deposit in the basket. So entrenched has the tradition become that the Rev. William Dale, who replaced French as pastor in 1982, tells the story of one Ascension child who wasn't convinced that he was in a Catholic church when he visited his grandparents' parish. ``Where's the grocery cart?'' the confused child asked.

Over the years, the church's community mission has gone far beyond supporting the hungry and the homeless. In 1989, organizational meetings were held at the church for citizens who worked on plans to assure that Virginia Beach would never have another situation like the Greekfest riots in which police clashed with college students on Atlantic Avenue over Labor Day weekend that year.

Since its beginning, representatives from Ascension have been involved in just about every grass-roots social services program in the city. That has continued under the church's current pastor, the Rev. James Parke.

Ascension also reached out to the Jewish community, an unusual move even after Vatican II. When Beth Chaverim, a Reform Jewish congregation, needed a home, Dale offered the use of the Kempsville church. For 10 years, Dale and Rabbi Israel Zoberman juggled schedules, combined resources and shared holidays in a unique arrangement between two faiths.

Thursday night, Zoberman and members of the grateful congregation, which now meets in its own building on Rosemont Road, joined in the celebration at Ascension along with former pastors French and Dale.

French, now at Immaculate Conception in Hampton, recalled that he had a dog named King Arthur while he was at Ascension.

``A man only has a Camelot one time in his ministry,'' French said in an interview earlier this week. ``Ascension was my Camelot and I figured it needed a king.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Pearl Lasky, center, is one of those attending the evening Mass on

Thursday celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Church of the

Ascension on Princess Anne Road in Kempsville. Bishop Walter

Sullivan, several priests and Rabbi Israel Zoberman were among those

present. KEYWORDS: CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION CATHOLIC CHURCH

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