Protestants Ash Wednesday

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I never thought about it before - I love Ash Wednesday, receiving the ashes. (I can’t go this year unfortunately for a few reasons) but what if anything do other religions do on Ash Wednesday and Lent? Are there any observations of this particular time or is this only a Catholic thing? even if your religion doesn’t recognize this time in any particular way do you personally do something special for this time of year?
 
donna369 said:
I never thought about it before - I love Ash Wednesday, receiving the ashes. (I can’t go this year unfortunately for a few reasons) but what if anything do other religions do on Ash Wednesday and Lent? Are there any observations of this particular time or is this only a Catholic thing? even if your religion doesn’t recognize this time in any particular way do you personally do something special for this time of year?
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No. We Lutherans have Ash Wednesday and Lent. We have an Ash Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes and everything, although ours is generally followed by the traditional Lutheran potluck, standard Lutheran fare.

Other Protestant communities have it as well, Anglicans, Methodists.

Although this is my first Ash Wednesday as a Lutheran, I am going to miss it today. That makes me sad.
 
I was raised in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (usually known as “UBs”). Ash Wednesday was always mentioned as the beginning of Lent, but I don’t recall ever doing anything different to commemorate it. We were encouraged to sacrifice something during Lent, but that was the extent of it.
 
Our LCMS parish has a prayer service at noon, and Divine Service at 7:00 pm, with imposition of ashes available at both. Although I will go to our Divine Service this evening to receive the Eucharist, I did go with co-workers to a Catholic Mass at noon today - all of us were fasting (although it is not a requirement for Lutherans, our pastor encourages us to consider it as part of our Lenten observances).

Kneeling in prayer and worship with my co-workers was a true “team building” activity, ecumenical in the best sense of the word.
 
As far as I know, Orthodox Christians don’t have Ash Wednesday. There’s no service for such a feast on the church calendar, anyway. I should ask about it.

This morning I went to something unusual: an interdenominational Ash Wednesday gathering*. Among those leading were an Anglican priest, a Reformed chaplain, and Evangelical (Baptist?) pastor, so the style was a mix of liturgical and contemporary. It was interesting to attend–plus chat a bit after.
 
I’m Anglican (C of E). Today we had a service of Holy Communion for Ash Wednesday including The Great Litany and imposition of ashes.

The 40 days of Lent are officially days of fasting and abstinence in the Church of England. At my parish church during Lent we use purple Altar frontals and vestments. We omit the Gloria and Alleluias at the Eucharist and don’t have floral arrangements. We have a couple of Lenten study groups running.

Some Anglican churches use an unbleached linen for vestments and Altar frontals known as Lenten Array. Where this is used, paintings, statues and crucifixes are usually veiled throughout Lent also. (Personally I prefer Lenten Array to purple.)
 
Symphorian said:
I’m Anglican (C of E). Today we had a service of Holy Communion for Ash Wednesday including The Great Litany and imposition of ashes.

The 40 days of Lent are officially days of fasting and abstinence in the Church of England. At my parish church during Lent we use purple Altar frontals and vestments. We omit the Gloria and Alleluias at the Eucharist and don’t have floral arrangements. We have a couple of Lenten study groups running.

Some Anglican churches use an unbleached linen for vestments and Altar frontals known as Lenten Array. Where this is used, paintings, statues and crucifixes are usually veiled throughout Lent also. (Personally I prefer Lenten Array to purple.)
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Ditto that for Lutherans 👍
 
donna369 said:
I never thought about it before - I love Ash Wednesday, receiving the ashes. (I can’t go this year unfortunately for a few reasons) but what if anything do other religions do on Ash Wednesday and Lent? Are there any observations of this particular time or is this only a Catholic thing? even if your religion doesn’t recognize this time in any particular way do you personally do something special for this time of year?
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Hi Donna, not all Catholics celebrate Ash Wednesday. Western Catholics do, but Eastern Catholics don’t (they celebrate instead Forgiveness Sunday like the Orthodox Christians do).

Anglican Protestants do celebrate Ash Wednesday, which makes sense because they came from Western Catholicism not Eastern Catholicism.
 
Trebor135 said:
As far as I know, Orthodox Christians don’t have Ash Wednesday. There’s no service for such a feast on the church calendar, anyway. I should ask about it.
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No, we (Orthodox Christians) don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday, we celebrate Forgiveness Sunday.
 
donna369 said:
I never thought about it before - I love Ash Wednesday, receiving the ashes. (I can’t go this year unfortunately for a few reasons) but what if anything do other religions do on Ash Wednesday and Lent? Are there any observations of this particular time or is this only a Catholic thing? even if your religion doesn’t recognize this time in any particular way do you personally do something special for this time of year?
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Going in a little while for our Ash Wednesday Divine Service, which includes the imposition of ashes and the Eucharist.

Jon
 
House_Harkonnen said:
No. We Lutherans have Ash Wednesday and Lent. We have an Ash Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes and everything, although ours is generally followed by the traditional Lutheran potluck, standard Lutheran fare.

Other Protestant communities have it as well, Anglicans, Methodists.

Although this is my first Ash Wednesday as a Lutheran, I am going to miss it today. That makes me sad.
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The only reasons why I would think one would stop being catholic and join a Lutheran church
  • birth control
    -remarriage and divorce
I can’t think of another reason honestly it seems silly you are so close but so far away go to confession my friend
 
As far as I know, Orthodox Christians don’t have Ash Wednesday. There’s no service for such a feast on the church calendar, anyway. I should ask about it.
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The GOs indeed do not observe Ash Wednesday, as for them, “Great Lent” does not as a rule begin on Wednesday.

ICXC NIKA
 
Adamski said:
The only reasons why I would think one would stop being catholic and join a Lutheran church
  • birth control
    -remarriage and divorce
I can’t think of another reason honestly it seems silly you are so close but so far away go to confession my friend
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It really is not at all our business why this occurred.

However, I can think of others:

-pressure from family

-marrying someone of the other faith

There may be others.

I agree that it is sad.

ICXC NIKA
 
Back before the turn of the century, I saw a lady with ashes on her forehead; she told me she was Anglican, and received the ashes at her church.

ICXC NIKA
 
Adamski said:
The only reasons why I would think one would stop being catholic and join a Lutheran church
  • birth control
    -remarriage and divorce
I can’t think of another reason honestly it seems silly you are so close but so far away go to confession my friend
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How about doctrine?
How about universal jurisdiction?

Do you think that Lutherans, when they move to the Catholic Church, do so to avoid divorce and contraceptives?

Jon
 
I won’t be able to make it to Divine Service today, because I’m a slave to the job at Noon and 7:00 pm. 😦 So my wife and I attended 6:30 am Roman Catholic Mass at the local cathedral. 🙂

There’s really no difference in how we mark Ash Wednesday, since Lutherans and Roman Catholics are Western catholic Christians. In fact, I wouldn’t have known the difference between Ash Wednesday Divine Service and Ash Wednesday Mass – well, that’s not true. The priest started talking about “cooperating” with God in his homily, and there were no hymns… :o
 
Hmmm…, our church has two services with ashes. We do not have required abstinence on Friday’s nor fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Some do fast, some do abstain. Lent is a time of reflection, repentance and preparation yes and some do ‘give up something’ during Lent in our church.
 
Adamski said:
The only reasons why I would think one would stop being catholic and join a Lutheran church
  • birth control
    -remarriage and divorce
I can’t think of another reason honestly it seems silly you are so close but so far away go to confession my friend
Click to expand...
That’s a silly assertion, as I am happily married once, and I have a horde of little ankle biters running around my house.

If I joined up for divorce and remarriage or to avoid children, man I must have gotten hit in the head really hard.

Is it beyond the pale that it could be some other reason?
 
I in the Assemblies of God and we do not have any type of Ash Wednesday service. We do have Wednesday night service on a regular basis throughout the year which consists of a Bible study lead by the pastor or a deacon, youth service and children’s ministries.
 
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