A Journey from Separation to Community
Lent is a journey.
Lent is a journey from separation to connection and life.
The steps are reflection and lament, confession and celebration. There’s letting go and taking in.
This is the journey we have to take for the sake of our world, God’s good Creation.
We take this journey together.
It starts here, with Ash Wednesday.
It starts here with questions, answers, Communion and ashes.
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Lent is a serious time, a time of self-reflection and soul-searching. It is a time of confession, and of lament. But, it can also be a time of celebration, of “alleluias” because, ultimately, we are an Easter people, an Easter church. We are not a Lenten people, or a Good Friday church. We are an Easter people, an Easter church. That is the frame out of which we live and move and have our being, even in the face of the things that tear us apart, that devastate the environment, that inflict violence on people, creatures, air, water, land.
The theme for these resources is “For the Love of Creation: A Journey from Separation to Community.” As we take this Lenten journey, we move through this time seeking for and yearning for community to overcome the separation we experience from ourselves, each other, our God, and all of God’s good Creation. And we undertake this journey, together.
Here is a simple liturgy for the celebration of Ash Wednesday (available as a PDF document), as churches enter into the Lenten season. Echoes of this service will be heard in the rest of the Lenten resources, which are coming soon.