UPDATE: Due to the severe winter weather that is due for Ash Wednesday, we want everyone to be safe, and so have canceled the in-person service at 5:30 PM.

The link below is to the full-text version of the video service, so that you may follow along with the video on Facebook, or if you do not have access to Facebook, you may read the service.

Video Service Ash Wednesday Feb 2023 (PDF)

All are invited and all are welcome as we begin our Lenten journey at St. John’s.  We will, starting next week Wednesday, have soup dinners followed by a short Lenten service.  Dinner starts at 5:30 pm with the service immediately following.

Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday (also known Fat Tuesday and the end of Mardi Gras) and falls on the first day of Lent^[ (the six weeks of penitence before Easter). Ash Wednesday is observed by Catholics in the Roman Rite, Lutherans, Moravians, Anglicans, Methodists, Nazarenes, as well as by some churches in the Reformed tradition (including certain Congregationalist, Continental Reformed, and Presbyterian churches). Because Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, many Christians begin Ash Wednesday by marking a Lenten calendar, praying a Lenten daily devotional, and giving up something that they will not partake of until the arrival of Eastertide.

Many Christians attend special church services, at which churchgoers receive ash on their foreheads. Ash Wednesday derives its name from this practice, which is accompanied by the words, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations.