An (Ashless) Ash Wednesday 2021
The world feels like a very different place from the world in which we gathered last year on a Wednesday in February to confess our sinful ways, to acknowledge our mortality, to receive the ashes, and to commend ourselves to the mercy, forgiveness, and grace of our Creator.
Perhaps this different world calls for new symbols and new practices. So this year we invite you to join us on February 17th, 2021, at 7pm via Zoom for an ashless Ash Wednesday Worship Service at Community of ChristChurch. Let’s explore the ways that not only our brokenness and our mortality, but also our connectedness and our belovedness all come together in the central symbol of earth… soil… dirt.
Brokenness:
We repent of our sinful ways, individually, and collectively, as we acknowledge the many ways the Christian Church has been complicit in the genocide of indigenous peoples and the oppression of black and brown bodies.
Mortality:
We lament all the lives lost in this global pandemic and we remember the words from our burial liturgy: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
Connectedness:
We celebrate our connection to the earth, to all creatures, and to our fellow human beings. “
So YHWH fashioned an earth creature out of the clay of the earth, and blew into its nostrils the breath of life. And the earth creature became a living being.” (Gen 2:7)
Belovedness:
We worship a God who loves us even in our brokenness and, in forgiving us, calls us to ways of reconciliation, wholeness, mutuality, and compassion… for the land and for our neighbors.
Please consider engaging in these spiritual practices in preparation for this worship experience.
DIG: Dig… up some soil from your garden or yard and bring it into your worship space.
DIG DEEPER: Learn… Click on this link, type in your address, and discover which tribes first resided on the land where you live.
Write the names of these tribes down in your journal or on a piece of paper.
DIG EVEN DEEPER: Pray… for repentance for us, for the church, for our nation, and for the healing and repair for all of creation.
We remember that it is from the stuff of soil and earth that we are all made, and to this soil and earth we will all return.
Zoom Details: 2/17 @ 7pm:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88907486249?pwd=VlpFNDRsVjZiWmNjYnJRMEJxY2lHQT09
Joining by phone:
If you are not able to join worship via your personal computer, tablet or
smartphone you are welcome to join using your phone.
- Call this number: 1-669-900-6833
- Use the meeting ID: 889 0748 6249
- Enter password: 884100
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