Lent (Day One): Ash Wednesday Service

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We invite you to join us this evening at 6:30 pm in our Sanctuary for our Ash Wednesday Worship Service.

You are also invited to share in our Wednesday night meal anytime between 5 - 6:15 pm in the Family Life Cente.r 

Introduction to the Season of Lent:  Lent is the season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday (today) and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter). Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “spring.” The season is a preparation for celebrating Easter, much like Advent prepares us for Christmas.  

Introduction to Ash Wednesday: Ash Wednesday emphasizes a dual encounter: we confront our own mortality and confess our sin before God. The service focuses on the themes of sin and death in light of God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ.  During the service, all will be invited to come forward. The pastors will dip their thumb into the ashes and make a cross on the forehead of each person. The use of ashes as a sign of mortality and repentance has a long history in Jewish and Christian worship, and the Imposition of Ashes can be a powerful nonverbal and experiential way of participating in the call to repentance and reconciliation.

Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline                           
The early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty–day season of spiritual preparation. During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins and had separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to participation in the life of the Church. In this way the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.

We invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: by self–examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self–denial; and by reading and meditating on God's Holy Word. 




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