NorthPark Presbyterian Church

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On Wednesday, February 22, we will have Ash Wednesday services to begin the season of
Lent.  Two identical services will be offered at 7 am and at 7 pm.  Each service will
last no more than 30 minutes.

While Ash Wednesday has been practiced for fourteen hundred years, it was thought to be
an excess of the Catholic Church during the time of the Reformation.  In the last 40
years many Presbyterian churches have begun to recapture the powerful experience found
in Ash Wednesday, and this year we are trying to do that in a very particular way. 

The theme of Lent this year for us will be “Paying Attention.”  Inside your bulletin
will be find two blank slips of paper.  On one piece of paper, you will be invited to
write down (for your eyes only) a behavior or attitude you want to change and/or leave
behind.  As you come forward to receive the ashes, you will tear up your paper and drop
the pieces in a bowl.  After the ashes are imposed, you will pass by the baptismal font
and dip your hand in the water as a sign that you are re-claiming your identity as
Christ’s disciple.  When you return to your seat, you will write on the second slip of
paper something new you would like to pay attention to, some behavior or discipline
that you want to take on, some attitude or awareness that you want to take with you.

Our hope is that this day will allow you to “pay attention” to the truths of life which
include pain but also healing, repentance but also forgiveness, death but also life
ever-lasting. 

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