Ash Wednesday services: Thank you all for joining us

Ash Wednesday Services:

• 7:30am Said Eucharist

7:30am Ash Wednesday Service Leaflet

• 12:15pm Sung Eucharist

12:15pm Ash Wednesday Service Leaflet

• 6:30pm Choral Eucharist (were also live-streamed on the Diocesan YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/tordio135)

6:30pm Ash Wednesday Service Leaflet

All services included the Imposition of Ashes.
The Cathedral were open for prayer on Ash Wednesday from 7:30am – 7:30pm

To see pictures of Ash Wednesday services, visit and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Watch the 6:30pm Ash Wednesday Service on February 22, 2023 on YouTube here

—–

Ash Wednesday, A Day for Penitents, for Us

The Ashes which will be imposed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday were long in preparation.

Last year on Palm Sunday, we received our Palm Crosses, took them home, keeping them in a safe visible place, and hopefully, used them in our devotions over the course of the year. In blessing them, the celebrant prayed “May we, carrying these emblems, go forth to meet Christ and follow him in the way that leads to eternal life”.

We may not have always walked these past 10 months in the way with Jesus. That does not surprise us. For we are reminded in the Baptismal Covenant that we will fail to do so, but “whenever you fall into sin, (we are to) repent and return to the Lord”.

Every Sunday, we make a corporate confession that we have made our contribution to the sinful state of the world in one form or another. There is no visible indication of that act of penitence except for our kneeling together and in one voice saying the words of confession. Ash Wednesday is that day when there is a visible indicator.

It was the practice in Rome for penitents and grievous sinners to begin their period of public penance on the first day of Lent in preparation for their restoration to the sacrament of the Eucharist. They were sprinkled with ashes, dressed in sackcloth, and obliged to remain apart until they were reconciled with the Christian community on Maundy Thursday. When these practices fell into disuse (sometime in the 8^th–10^th century), the beginning of the penitential season of Lent was symbolized by placing ashes on the heads of the entire congregation.

I invite us all to enter upon this Holy Day, praying as the presider will pray, “Almighty God, from the dust of the earth you have created us. May these ashes be for us a sign of our mortality and penitence, and a reminder that only by your gracious gift are we given eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.”

Have a Holy Lent

The Rev’d Canon Dr. Stephen Fields
Sub-Dean & Vicar