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CJ Miller
pastor@occumc.org
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| Posted: |
2/7/2007 11:13:51 AM |
Number of Reads: |
124777 |
| Last Reply: |
2/9/2007 12:52:26 AM |
Number of Replies: |
1 |
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I'm sorry to see that the article on Ash Wednesday--Ashes and Water Don't Mix--
made the unwarrented assumption that Protestant churches that do not use ashes on Ash Wednesday are simply prejudiced against looking "too Catholic." It really irritates me to have that kind of judgmental opinion stated as fact.
I have not used ashes for the last 36 years for this reason: the Gospel text for Ash Wednesday says: "When you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting...But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret..." Fred Gealy in his book "Celebration" writes: "The ceremony of the blessing and imposition of ashes was rejected by the Reformers, whether Lutheran, Anglican or Reformed, 'not only because of their distaste of the blessing of such things as ashes, but more particulaaly because the ceremony seemed to be a strange contradiction of the Gospel lesson for the day...'" page 56. I agree with Geely.
(GBOD NOTE: The article is available at http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=1847&loc_id=9,10,32,48)
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