Ash Wednesday Service, Feb 22nd at Noon

Our Church will join the Christian community worldwide in recognizing February 22, 2012, as Ash Wednesday, the beginning of this year's Lenten Season. Our service will be a reflection of our mortality and the need to repent and turn our lives over to God.  Everyone is invited for a brief worship service at 12 noon in our church sanctuary. There will be a light snack to follow. 

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Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned.

This service is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations