Presbyters in The Episcopal Church
Ping!
My granddaughter Delaney was born at 7:00 this morning, Ash Wednesday! She was truly a miracle baby because they discovered the cord was tied in an actual knot early in the pregnancy. That usually leads to fetal demise because the baby doesn’t get adequate nourishment during the gestational period. It was the talk of Labor & Delivery because it’s rare apparently. Delaney was blessed because the knot wasn’t too tight. Praise Jesus!
Your definition of an Evangelical Church is sadly badly incorrect.
Got a link to that church? Even a name?
As a die-hard fundie Evangelical; I can promise you this; Evangelical churches ARE NOT observing Ash Wednesday.
This story was on The Five on Fox this evening. It was an ELCA church, which is neither Lutheran, Protestant, or Catholic but they had TV coverage so that’s all that matters to The Church of What’s Happenin’ Now.
Presbyters in The Episcopal Church
Ash Wednesday worship, like Palm Sunday worship, is a Christian tradition. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. The real measure of it is aligning it with a biblical view of Christianity.
That isn’t really very hard. It was roughly 6 months before the resurrection when the bible says that Jesus ‘set his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem’ (Luke 11). It reiterates that about 2 months (Luke 17) before his final Passover. He was on his way to the cross. He also instructs Christians to take up their cross and follow him. So, a period of cross-bearing prior to Easter seems biblically reasonable, contrary to nothing biblical I can think of, and not a bad tradition.
As you probably have detected over the years, I’m a strong advocate of true Christian unity. This service is something we all can share. My sense is we should celebrate such opportunities.
I had been unchurched for almost 20 years when i returned to me hometown haunts in early ‘95.
I aghast when they promoted an ash wednesday service, mostly because in our neighborhood, lacking indians, we had had always played cowboys and catholics as kids.
I jumped the preacher and asked him what’s up. He told me that somtime in ‘70s the vatican called for a world ecumenical conference aiming to find more common areas for worship between catholics and protestants. A bunch were invited but IIRC only about 6 or 8 attended.
Ash Wednesdsy was approved as optional but noy mandatory for protestants Many have followed suit since.