Professor Elkins once served a West Virginia church that "couldn't afford palm branches, so they ground up a coal lump and were marked with coal dust, which deepened the ritual by linking it with black lung," the disease affecting many miners. Day recalls getting ashes from nearby Episcopal churches the first year his church conducted the service. Professor Elkins also says the Ash Wednesday rite is gaining popularity among Protestants because "it is the one place in the liturgical year where people can gather to openly grieve together."Īshes for the service are traditionally made by burning the palms used at the Palm Sunday celebration the previous year. Randy Day, says parishioners had indicated that the solemn and meditative character of the ritual was a welcome balance to the upbeat tone of most Sunday services. This will be the third year that ashes are offered at Jessie Lee Memorial United Methodist Church in Ridgefield, Conn. "The marking of congregants with the cross, the accompanying words - 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return' - and the ashes themselves really draw people into the depths of the mystery of who Christ is for us." "We are discovering the importance of ritual action and its ability to draw us beyond the cerebral," she says. McKinley, who handles questions of worship for the national office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), says the Ash Wednesday service was part of a two-decade effort by her church to "recapture the Christian year," the cycle of holy days and seasons. It is a day when Catholics go to mass and in addition to receiving the word of God and the Eucharist we receive ashes on our foreheads in the shape of a cross.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |