Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. The chairs for our worship are set up choir style as pictured above. The pulpit is at the door to the church, the baptismal font is at the middle and halfway between the font and the altar is a copper bowl for burning sins in our confession this evening (pictured below). We move down the aisle of the church from pulpit and hearing the Gospel, to the font of baptism, to the fire which will consume the sins we confess, to communion at the altar.

This shows visibly how we move from hearing God's Word proclaimed to our response in coming forward for baptism and then when we sin we return to God and ask for forgiveness, having done so we move back to the altar to experience God's presence once more in the Eucharist. Come experience this tonight at 7 p.m. in our Ash Wednesday liturgy where we will be marked with the sign of the cross and reminded to, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." It is a moving worship service and a fitting start to our season of Lent.