RICHMOND — Many Virginia Baptist congregations inaugurated their Lenten observance Feb. 25 with Ash Wednesday services — a tradition rooted in ancient Christianity and one increasingly common among Baptist churches across the Commonwealth.
The service, which dates to at least the 10th century, is held on the first day of Lent and includes the imposition of ashes in the sign of the cross, traditionally accompanied by the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The symbol echoes the Old Testament tradition of placing ashes on one’s head to signify repentance and is a reminder of every believer’s mortality.
Ash Wednesday is a common feature of liturgical faith communities and, though statistics are unavailable, observers say most Virginia Baptist churches probably don’t observe it. But the number that does is growing.
“I had never done [an Ash Wednesday service] before coming to this church,” said Tom Leland, pastor of University Baptist Church in Charlottesville. “Coming out of a fairly conservative Baptist background, I had questions about it. I thought it was awfully Catholic.”
But that changed the first time he participated, he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, there is something really meaningful here.’ … It has been as meaningful to me to have ashes imposed on my forehead by another staff member as me imposing them on our church members.”
Cari DuVal of First Baptist Church in Richmond and her daughter, Lillian, kneel to receive the imposition of ashes.
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At McLean Baptist Church in Northern Virginia, pastor Michael Catlett said he began Ash Wednesday services three or four years ago. “We’ve always observed Lent,” he said. “But [Baptists] have thrown out the baby with the baptismal water and dismissed the real symbolism and importance of Ash Wednesday as marking the beginning of that journey” he added, explaining the rationale for beginning the service.
This year about 75 people — about a third of McLean’s regular worshipping community — attended the service. “The associate ministers imposed the ashes this year. I did not,” said Catlett. Instead, he was the first in line to receive ashes “because I wanted to say how important I think this is.”
At Calvary Baptist Church in Roanoke, the service was preceded by a meal — not a regular feature of the church’s Wednesday night activities. About 40 people attended, said pastor Donna Hopkins Britt, “including eight folks who have become active only in the last year. It was great.”
Calvary encourages worshippers to participate even if they choose not to have ashes imposed. “We ask them to place their arms across their chest and we won’t place ashes, though we do offer the words of blessing,” which at Calvary are drawn from the prophet Joel: “Return to the Lord with all your heart.”
Other churches in Virginia, such as Williamsburg Baptist Church in Williamsburg, also provide options, placing ashes on either the forehead or back of the hand, as the worshipper indicates.
Nearly 500 people attended the service at First Baptist Church in Richmond, which began the practice about 10 years ago. Eight staff ministers imposed ashes on participants kneeling on prayer rails arrayed across the front of the church.
“Our service has grown because of the ‘Journey to the Cross’ meditation services we’ve always held on Wednesday nights in Lent,” said Lynn Turner, associate pastor at First Baptist, who noted the service was moved from the chapel to the sanctuary last year. In the past, as ashes were imposed, ministers urged each participant to “Bear the cross gladly.” This year, with the coming of pastor Jim Somerville, the ancient reference to dust was used.
In Fredericksburg, the Latino community participated in a Miércoles de Ceniza (or Ash Wednesday) hosted by Fredericksburg Baptist Church and led by Greg and Sue Smith, whose Hispanic ministry is supported in part by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
“We created seven ‘estaciones’ or stations and called the service ‘Un Encuentro con Jesús’ or ‘An Encounter with Jesus,” said Greg Smith. “We invited attendees to journey through the seven stations hearing Scripture, offering prayers of confession, receiving ashes and, above all, encountering Jesus anew.”
Leaders at the station included Daniel Carro, Virginia Baptists’ Latino Ministries Kingdom Advance ambassador, and Alberto Prokopchuk, secretary of the Union of Baptists in Latin America, a regional fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance. Prokopchuk was attending BWA meetings in Northern Virginia.
Several Virginia Baptist churches have experimented with the structure of Ash Wednesday services. At Williamsburg Baptist, pastor Jim Johnson imposed ashes at the beginning of the service, rather than the middle or end. “It was a new way of looking at it,” he said. “My thought was that those who chose to attend were already preparing for the Lenten season of repentance, so as they entered the sanctuary , for those who wanted ashes, we imposed them on their forehead or hands, while reading a variety of Scriptures related to repentance and forgiveness.”
Williamsburg’s service was based on the Prayer of St. Francis. Hymns and anthems were interspersed with segments of the prayer, which begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.”
“It spoke to my spirit because for me Ash Wednesday and Lent are not so much about simply making people feel badly about sins, but it’s the notion of repentance being a turn around, a reorientation of your life,” said Johnson. “It’s positive — it’s about an adjustment in our lives and moving in a new direction.”
Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond continues the centuries-old tradition of imposing ash gathered from burning palm branches used on the previous Palm Sunday, said pastor Sterling Severns.
In the service Severns, an accomplished photographer, projects photos of church members — often including some who died in the past year — on a burlap cloth hanging above the altar. On the burlap below the photos, a slow-motion video of the burning palm fronds loops throughout the service.
“For participants in the pews, seeing the images on the screen at the same time as people walking back up the aisle with the ash on their forehead is a powerful reminder of community,” said Severns.
Tabernacle’s service also connects the church’s observance of the Christian year, from Epiphany to Pentecost, said Severns. In early Epiphany, on the Sunday in January dedicated to recalling the baptism of Jesus, Severns assists church members to remember their own baptism by dipping his finger in water and marking their foreheads with the sign of the cross. “We emphasize that we are not baptizing anyone this way,” says Severns. “It’s a tangible way for members to recall their baptism.”
Marking the sign of the cross with ash at the beginning of Lent echoes the January symbol, Severns said.
At the end of the Ash Wednesday service, participants wrote on long strips of linen the burdens they want to give to God or commitments they intend to make during Lent. The linen strips are wrapped around a potted tree in the sanctuary – “all the burdens and commitments wound up together,” said Severns — where it stays throughout the penitential season. On Easter Sunday, church members bring flowers which are placed all over the linen-covered tree – a vivid symbol of resurrection.
Biltmore Baptist Church in Glen Allen found in an Ash Wednesday service a natural setting for its seminary intern to share experiences from a recent mission trip. “Lauren Deer, our youth ministry intern and student at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, shared her mission immersion experience in China,” said Biltmore member Barbara Francis. “Then she and associate pastor Alice Cates led in the imposition of ashes.”
In Danville and Abingdon, Baptist churches participated in community-wide ecumenical Ash Wednesday services held each year. Members of First Baptist Church in Danville, as well as College Park, High Street and West Main Baptist churches in the city, gathered with Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians for Scripture readings and the imposition of ash.
“Danville has more churches per capita than any city in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said First Baptist pastor Stephen Cook. “We are a city of 212 churches and 135 of them are Baptist.” Joining with other churches has become a meaningful part of the Lent, said Cook.
Park Deane, minister of music at Abingdon Baptist Church, said his church participated in Ash Wednesday services with the other “Main Street churches” — Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian, as well as a Baptist African American congregation — and continue to meet for weekly meditations throughout Lent.
Other churches, while not conducting services, used Ash Wednesday to emphasize a period of reflection and repentance before Easter. “Last year we introduced the concept of Ash Wednesday,” said pastor Steve Gupton of First Baptist Church in Virginia. “This year we went deeper — its usefulness for reflecting on one’s life, on sins and shortcomings and on realizing the gift of salvation and preparing the heart for Easter. Ash Wednesday fell in the middle of a three-month study of Christian spirituality, so the timing was perfect.”
Next year, said Gupton, First Baptist will likely begin a service on Ash Wednesday.
Robert Dilday is associate editor of the Religious Herald.