Event Details

Ash Wednesday Worship, at Sumner Center UMC, at 6pm

6:00 pm

What is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is the first day of the Lenten season, a period of 40-some days focused on spiritual purification and repentance. It is a day of fasting for Catholic and Anglican churches. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of the distribution of ashes upon the foreheads of Christians. What do the black marks mean? Those black marks are meant to be crosses, although as the day wears on they can look like black smudges. They are a mixture of ashes, Holy Water and, sometimes, olive oil. It's especially significant, because Jesus was greeted in Jerusalem as a hero and the Messiah by the mob and he would eventually be put to death by the hands of the Romans at the insistence of those people. The ashes are meant to remind Christians about human mortality, while also showing the individual's desire for repentance and mourning of their own sins. As the priest or minister puts the ash on the body, he, or she, says "Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19) or "Repent, and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15).