Many churches mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent with the imposition of ashes. Clergy smear ashes, usually those left after burning palm fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations, onto congregants’ foreheads, often in the shape of a cross.
That practice presents a problem when health experts fighting COVID-19 have advised people to avoid touching their faces or coming in close proximity to others. Some churches haven’t met since the pandemic first upended life during the last Lenten season.
An ecumenical group of clergy, theologians, liturgical scholars and public health experts recently released guidelines for safely observing Ash Wednesday, which falls this year on Feb. 17, recommending no indoor meetings, lots of hand sanitizer and, when doling out ashes in a drive-thru, keeping the line moving to avoid traffic jams.
“The pandemic has to be paid attention to,” said the Rev. Taylor W. Burton Edwards, pastor of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation in Warner Robins, Georgia.
Drive-thru ashes have been gaining popularity in recent years for busy Christians unable to attend weekday Ash Wednesday services. This year, they join drive-thru live nativities, drive-thru communion, even drive-thru confession.
The Rev. Stacy Gahlman-Schroeder of Norway Grove Memorial Lutheran Church in DeForest, Wisconsin, plans to stand in the church parking lot throughout the day, dipping disposable Q-tips into the ashes, rather than her finger, or offering a blessing, if it’s preferred.
As cold as that sounds, Gahlman-Schroeder is looking forward to it.
“I’m selfish on this,” she said. “I really do want to see the faces again. It’s been a long year.”
Other recommendations from the Ecumenical Consultation on Protocols for Worship, Fellowship, and Sacraments include distributing ashes to congregants for their personal use — Scripture, the document points out, describes people sprinkling themselves with ashes. The group also approved the Vatican’s recommendation for priests to mix ash with holy water and wordlessly sprinkle it on congregants.
And it suggested churches can forgo ashes altogether.