Ash Wednesday 2010 is not like 2009 for us. Today our friends and neighbors will get their ashes on their forehead. Most everyone in the little farm town of Fayetteville will receive ashes.
We didn't see any in New Zealand. We did see a Catholic Church in Rotarura but we also saw church that the Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians share. I have never seen that before.
The mark of ashes on the forehead goes way back to early Roman Catholic times. I found a good quote but it won't copy and paste on this blog so I will at least try and give you the link.
Ash Wednesday starts the 40 day Lenten period of fasting and abstinence. Some places show more recognition to Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent.
Whatever your believe, we wish you a good Ash Wednesday and the 40 days leading to Easter.
Ed and LuAnn
Thanks for adding the link; it made a good post even better. (And that's coming from a Baptist!)
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, it didn't used to be uncommon in my neck of the woods for some "low church" denominations to share a church building, but I never heard of any "high church" denominations doing it. I'm a little surprised at high and low denominations sharing a building, though. Not that it should matter, since there's only one church anyway (though some would disagree as to the meaning of that term).
ReplyDeleteI agree, I was very surprised. Kiwi's are very open minded and very non demoninational.
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