A Community Called Together:

A Brief History of Ascension

Some parishes are planted by bishops. Ascension was planted by neighbors.

In 1953, a group of Episcopalians in the growing suburb of Vestavia Hills didn't wait for the Diocese to come to them. They organized themselves — meeting in the town hall, in homes, in school buildings — and asked to be a church. That act of initiative, guided by Bishops Carpenter and Murray and early clergy including The Revs. David Cady Wright and Lee Graham, set the tone for everything that followed.

By 1956 they had their first full-time vicar, The Rev. Josiah Ware, Jr. By 1957 a building. By 1960 they were a full parish — and Ware became its first Rector, a sign of a young congregation that had taken root. He served through 1969. In the decades that followed, under the ministries of The Rev. Edmund Campbell (1970–1972), The Rev. Robert Lockard (1972–2000), The Rev. Craig Smalley (2001–2006), and The Rev. Stephen Hood (2007–2017), Ascension became known for something that can't be built or budgeted: a genuine concern for one another. It's the thing longtime members mention when asked why they drive across town on Sunday mornings. It's what visitors notice when they walk in the door.

For years, Ascension has been showing up in the wider community — supporting local families through the weekend backpack program, serving the hungry at the Abbey, and bringing neighbors together at the Food Truck Festival. The parish has also deepened its engagement with the Diocese of Alabama, contributing leadership and presence beyond its own walls.

Those commitments have shaped who Ascension is becoming. In 2018, The Reverend Jack Alvey was called as Rector, and the parish entered a new season of growth and outward focus. In 2023, Ascension welcomed its first full-time Associate Rector, The Rev. Emily Collette — another sign of a community investing in its future. In recent years, people from every generation have been finding their way here, drawn by the liturgy, the community, and a parish that takes faith seriously without taking itself too seriously.

That investment took another form when the parish engaged Williams Blackstock Architects in a master planning process to reimagine its campus for the decades ahead. It is the kind of decision a community makes when it believes its best days are still in front of it.

Ascension began because a group of neighbors decided to show up. Over seventy years later, the parish is still showing up — for each other, for Vestavia Hills, and for the wider church and community.