Ashes To Go
Event Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Time: 9 am - 11 am
Location: Ace Hardware
1560 S Highway 29,
Cantonment, FL 32533
Contact: Vivin Welch
+1 (850) 449-3627
CANTONMENT, FL - Need to do Ash Wednesday in a hurry? Several churches are offering outdoors imposition of ashes to help people start Lent today, even without leaving their cars.
St. Monica’s Episcopal Church Rev Deacon Rachel Iversen says they will be on the porch of Ace Hardware Cantonment just across from Tate HS next to the BurgerKing and Winn Dixie off of Hwy 29 from 9 am until 11 am., offering ashes to observe Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.
"This is for people on their way to work - it’s a window of opportunity," Iversen said. "People can pull up, we’ll have a guided meditation, a prayer on a bulletin. They can read the prayer, prepare mentally and spiritually. If they want to pray, we’ll pray with them."
It has been our experience that people receive ashes on their foreheads and prayer from clergy in robes while sitting in their cars. Some people just want to pray. Some are overcome with emotion and cry as they roll down their windows.
The drive-through concept welcomes people who have never observed Ash Wednesday before. They don't have to be churchgoers, Iversen said. "There’s no stipulation - wherever you are in your spiritual journey," she said. "If they’re curious, they can experience the ashes. It’s a spiritual experience. If people want a time of prayer, repentance and reflecting on their own mortality, we want to let them know that the call to turn and focus on God is present anywhere."
"We make a shape of the cross with ashes on the forehead and say what the ancients said, ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’ It’s a wonderful reminder of our mortality but the grace of it all too.”
Iversen said they will hand out sheets with answers to frequently asked questions about Ash Wednesday, such as "Do I have to wear the ashes all day?" "Only if you want to," Iversen said. The ashes are worn as a sign of penitence.
"The church is called to take the church out to the streets.
"We are going to dress like clergy so people know we are fulfilling that role," Iversen said. "If I we were out there in blue jeans people wouldn’t know we were ministers."
Ash Wednesday marks the start of the 40-day penitential period of Lent, leading up to the celebration of Easter, which will be observed March 31 in most churches.
Ashes to go is an outreach ministry of St. Monica’s Episcopal church located at 699 SR-95A. There will be an indoor Ash Wednesday service at 6 PM with readings, homily, Eucharist and imposition of ashes.
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Viven Welch, Communications Minister
St. Monica's Episcopal Church
699 S. Highway 95-A
Cantonment, FL 32533
850-449-3627
