Aiken area Churches observe Ash Wednesday, mark start of Lent

Feb. 22—Several Aiken County churches had a milestone in the midst of this week's activities, with the observance of Ash Wednesday marking the start of Lent and its traditional messages touching on self-denial, repentance and humility.

"This period really leads to the joy of Easter — the resurrection of Christ from the dead," said Father Emmanuel Andinam, the priest at St. Gerard Catholic Church.

Andinam was among local clergy administering ashes in the shape of a cross, to each participant's forehead and exhorting the biblical concept of "ashes to ashes," as a reminder of mortality and Easter's concepts of humility and hope.

The occasion represents "a solemn reminder of our humanity," said Father George Alexander, rector of All Saints' Anglican Church.

Ash Wednesday represents the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period leading to Easter, not counting Sundays, which are counted as "little Easters," according to the Rev. Tim McClendon, senior pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church.

The tradition of Lent is particularly strong in Catholic, Episcopal and Anglican congregations. These liturgical churches use a prescribed set of forms for public religious worship and have a schedule including such observances as Advent (approximately a month before Christmas) and Epiphany (Jan. 6, known to some as "Three Kings' Day"). Many churches approach Lent as a period of self-denial.

"Worship is on Sundays ... because Jesus rose on a Sunday," McClendon said, adding that liturgical churches' paraments — altar cloths and clergy stoles — are traditionally purple during Lent. Purple represents "penitence and reflection," he added.

Andinam emphasized the disciplines of prayer, fasting and giving to the poor. "No longer focusing on self, but on ... our relationship with God, our spiritual life — no material life alone — and to contemplate the promises that Christ gives of saying the benefit of the sacrifices we make ... will be enormous, and of course, to share in the joy of the resurrection of Christ, which we will celebrate at Easter," he said.

McClendon also noted a link between one year's Palm Sunday — one week before Easter — and the following year's Ash Wednesday. Some churches burn the palms and mix those ashes with pure oil to make the paste that is applied on Ash Wednesday to make a sign of the cross.

"We burn last year's palm fronds in penitence and repentance for the ways that we've been fickle and inconsistent in our witness for Jesus," he said. "The saying that is always said at Ash Wednesday services, in most liturgical traditions, is, 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.' It's a reminder of our mortality."

Alexander also addressed Lent. "It becomes a more, as we say, solemn time in the life of the church, for that six weeks, and it's when we concentrate on bringing ourselves under certain discipline in preparation for Easter."

The period, he said, brings "an opportunity have a positive spiritual experience."