Ash Wednesday Service 2023

Holy Eucharist together with Imposition of Ashes

February 22nd at 7pm

Our traditional Ash Wednesday Holy Eucharist service with imposition of ashes will be held on February 22nd at 7pm in the main church. All are welcome.

Ash Customs and Symbolism

Ash Wednesday takes its name from a religious custom unique to the day. At Special Ash Wednesday services clergy members dip their thumbs in ashes and paint a cross on the forehead of each worshipper. As they do so, they say, Remember that you are dust, and that to dust you shall return. These words recall the warning God gave to Adam and Eve before banishing them from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:19). Alternatively, the officiant may declare, Repent, and believe in the Gospel, thereby echoing Jesus’ proclamation as he began his ministry in Galilee (Mark 1:15).

This ritual reminds worshipers of their own mortality and therefore of the need to improve their relationship with God and their relationships with fellow human beings. It introduces the theme of repentance, which will characterize the rest of the Lenten season. Repentance may be thought of as a change of heart and mind that inspires a return to God.

The imposition of ashes was inspired by the symbolic role of ashes in the Bible. In the Bible ashes accompany or represent grief, destruction, mortality, and repentance. When Job repents his questioning of God’s judgment, he declares, I…repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). In biblical times rampaging armies often burned the towns they conquered, reducing them to ashes. Thus ashes stand for death and destruction in some biblical imagery. Other potent images connect ashes with mourning, as when the grief-stricken put on a rough kind of cloth known as sackcloth and covered themselves in ashes (2 Samuel 13:19, Esther 4:1, and Isaiah 61:3).

By the Middle Ages Christians had adopted ashes into their religious devotions. Many writers believe that the use of ashes on Ash Wednesday grew out of customs surrounding the public confession of sins practiced during early Christian and early medieval times. According to these writers, Christians whose sins, or errors, were deemed especially great were expected to arrive barefoot at church on the first day of Lent. They declared their sins in the presence of the congregation and expressed grief for their transgressions. Afterwards the priest sprinkled ashes on their heads and gave them a sackcloth garment covered in ashes to wear. Thus attired they departed to complete the penance that had been assigned to them by the priest.