"Ashes to Go"

On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the church season of Lent (February 22 this year) The Church of the Good Shepherd is going to try something called Ashes to Go. The Right Rev. Mark Beckwith, bishop of the Diocese of Newark, has asked members of Episcopal churches around northern New Jersey to go to train stations, bus stations, busy intersections or other places people gather to offer ashes and a prayer for Ash Wednesday. The hope is that church folks will get out of our buildings to meet people who may be seeking God and who are wary of entering a church. Good Shepherd folks will be at the bus stops under Lemoine Avenue for commuters going over the George Washington Bridge to New York.

I'm excited about this and nervous.  

Excited: I like public worship, letting people see that the church cares about everyday life. Each Ash Wednesday a few people come to the church seeking ashes, but the worship times are inconvenient or they're on their way somewhere.

Nervous: I don't want to impose my religion on anyone. And, for believers, the opportunity to reflect on life and God in the Ash Wednesday liturgy is usually more important than the ashes themselves--in fact the Scripture read on Ash Wednesday urges believers NOT to show off their religion. We offer two worship services in the church at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. as a longer opportunity to begin Lenten observances.

But I want folks who consider themselves "nominally Christian" but haven't been to a church in years to see whether a time of prayer, service and making amends might be useful in their life now. The press around Lent is usually gloomy: contemplate your sins and your mortality. In fact, Lent is as much, if not more, about contemplating God's forgiveness of sin and God's presence and comfort as humans face illness, grief or other consequences of mortality.

So, we'll try it--not rushing up to random people and smearing ash on their heads without permission, not insisting that people take tracts, but offering a mark of companionship on a journey towards healing, justice, new life and new hope for those who choose to accept our invitation.