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    Ohio church offers drive-thru for Ash Wednesday

    By DAN SEWELL | Associated Press – Thu, Feb 23, 2012

    CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners pressed for time or reluctant to come inside the church for the Lenten observance.

    The Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati offered the ashes Wednesday evening for people of all faiths beginning around 5 p.m. in the church parking lot. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which concludes after 40 days with the celebration of Easter, and the faithful traditionally have a smudged cross drawn on their forehead.

    Bridget Spitler, the church's secretary and building manager, said the church had received a lot of positive feedback for offering the drive-thru ashes.

    "Some people may not be too comfortable coming in for a serious service," she said, adding that people with severe arthritis or other ailments that make attending the service uncomfortable also appreciate the drive-thru opportunity.

    The pastor will provide a church brochure and a Lenten booklet, and the church offers a traditional Ash Wednesday service inside at 7 p.m.

    It's a first at her church, but some other churches have also taken more-informal approaches to the ashes. There's even a Web site called Ashes to Go.

    The Rev. Teresa K.M. Danieley of St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Louis said the ecumenical effort began in 2007, with ashes given to some 100 passers-by outside a coffeehouse. The practice has spread, with clergy members offering ashes outside commuter trains, at bus stops and on street corners around the country.

    "Ashes to Go can be a powerful way for people to encounter Christ where they are, in the midst of their lives," she says on the website.

    Cincinnati Archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco said for the Cincinnati region's many Roman Catholics, getting ashes still calls for attending a service.

    Some Cincinnati area Catholics might be taking part in another Lenten tradition: McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwiches were pioneered in Cincinnati in the early 1960s by a franchisee, the late Lou Groen, who was trying to offset business being lost when Catholics abstained from eating meat on Fridays.

    ___

    Online:

    www.ashestogo.org

    ___

    Contact the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

    ___

    Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

     
    • Marysia
      Marysia  •  Jacksonville, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      what bothers me is the whole "they were uncomfortable coming in for a serious service".... really!??! then why are you getting the ashes? they are an outward sign OF FAITH not some superficial club. how sad that this is what faith has come too..... nothing but a facade for some.
      • JimS
        JimS 3 mths ago
        "why are you getting the ashes?"

        Cause...due to the drought, there was a county burn ban in effect and they couldn't build a fire at home.
      • Betty Martin
        Betty Martin 3 mths ago
        Exactly my thought, Marysia
    • JoS
      JoS  •  Ellijay, Georgia  •  3 mths ago
      This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. You need community and you do not get it in a drive-thru.
    • Cris
      Cris  •  3 mths ago
      Next time send the blessings via e-mail ?!
      • john
        john 3 mths ago
        Good going slick, you just gave them the idea . lol
      • jo-jo
        jo-jo 3 mths ago
        Better yet....order your ashes online and say from dust............ and put your own on. A money maker for the church.
    • Snowmamm
      Snowmamm  •  Kalamazoo, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      Is this a sign of where our society is headed? Is worshiping in church becoming an inconvenience? The Smart Phone logo now appears in our Sunday bulletin. I predict that it won't be long until you won't have to bother getting out of bed on Sunday morning. Simply turn on your TV or watch and worship via the internet or Smart Phone.
      • Oven
        Oven 3 mths ago
        They already have that. Have you never heard of televangelists?
      • Robin J. Sky
        Robin J. Sky 3 mths ago
        I recall an old homebound lady that used to live next to my grandparents. She would watch Sunday mass on TV and then someone from one of the local churches would bring her communion. Granted she was like 80 years old and lived alone.
      • Betty Martin
        Betty Martin 3 mths ago
        Maybe you need to find a new church? The only thing my church "advertises" in its bulletin is a blood drive for a boy with leukemia.
    • JAC
      JAC  •  Memphis, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      The Story of America: put in as little effort as possible to meet the minimum requirement to get into Heaven. Grace is not something you can package up, market and sell, or fit into your busy schedule when it's convenient. I can just see the "To Do" list of the people using this "service:" drop off kids, pick up dry cleaning, soccer for Jimmy 4:00 p.m., groceries, ashes, fill tank, Smith Heating & Cooling @ 2:30.
      • Mike
        Mike 3 mths ago
        Right on!!
        ....because you are luke warm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16
      • jo-jo
        jo-jo 3 mths ago
        Wow Mike, that passage is full of love and good will.
      • WAB
        WAB 3 mths ago
        Ironic that Southerners are protesting the most, yet they are the ones who build unGoldy behemoths for places of worship right next to trailer homes filled with hungry children and their poverty stricken parents. Nothing says you love Jesus as much as a... 30,000 square foot church? Really?
    • Motown
      Motown  •  3 mths ago
      McLent
    • D Terrent
      D Terrent  •  3 mths ago
      That's the Ohio lifestyle, they even have drive-thru liquor stores and drive-thru out-patient treatment. If it was legal, they'd have drive-thru brothels.
    • J
      J  •  3 mths ago
      Oh this windo wasnt for drive up confesion? I better put a pattent on that idea. Drive up concesion at churches. No need to exit your vehicle. Is this society becoming lazy or what?
    • sue
      sue  •  3 mths ago
      Fast food, Fast Cash now Fast Blessing. :-P
    • Kat
      Kat  •  3 mths ago
      Too freakin funny. Drive-through church. Americans really do need to slow down and reconnect with their lives. This is truly a testament to the absudity of U.S. life.
    • Larry
      Larry  •  3 mths ago
      Next they will invent Drive Thru Church services for those in a hurry on their way to an accident....
      Odd how in these modern times America wonders why their country is all wrong - but their money says "In God We Trust" yet no one has any time to do that .....
    • DAGOPSUX
      DAGOPSUX  •  Laredo, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Wow! now you can get ashed thru a drive thru! whats next a drive thru baptism!
    • HelenM
      HelenM  •  Quarryville, Pennsylvania  •  3 mths ago
      I wonder why people are losing respect for formalized religion?
    • q
      q  •  3 mths ago
      REALLY!!!! DRIVE TRU WORSHIP!!!!! REALLY!!!! SHAME
    • Richard
      Richard  •  Wallingford, Connecticut  •  3 mths ago
      A shame people don't have time to go into Chufch for a few minutes and recieve ashes. A few years back I was on vacation in San Francisco on Ash Wednesday and took time out to go to Church and recieve ashes. This world is definitely headed in the wrong direction.
    • cyndi
      cyndi  •  3 mths ago
      stupid
    • Maria
      Maria  •  3 mths ago
      Coming Soon.......... to busy to go to church??.....We have an App for that
    • SnowKatcher
      SnowKatcher  •  3 mths ago
      As a lifelong Christian, I can't quite wrap my head around drive-by church. The purpose of church is to spend time in God's word, reflect on it, learn from it and just enjoy. How can you do any of that in less than a minute? What do you honestly get out of spending 15 seconds to get ashes on your forehead, and then off you go?

      I think this defeats the purpose of actually going to church or spending time in your faith. You're not protected or saved or forgiven just because you stop by for some ashes. It takes faith, it takes commitment.

      If you claim to have faith, if it's something that's important to you, than you'll make the time for it.

      Ash Wednesday isn't just about ashes on your forehead. It's about why they are there and what they represent.
    • I hate spam
      I hate spam  •  New York, New York  •  3 mths ago
      I don't understand from reading my Bible what this has to do with Christianity
    • Carroll
      Carroll  •  Tacoma, Washington  •  3 mths ago
      I thought it was "walk a mile in his shoes," not "drive his beemer to McChurch for wine-and-crackers."
     Post a comment
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