An Ohio church is offering a drive-thru Ash Wednesday blessing for parishioners pressed for time or reluctant to come inside the church for the Lenten observance.
The Rev. Patricia Anderson Cook of Mt. Healthy United Methodist Church in suburban Cincinnati offered the ashes Wednesday evening for people of all faiths beginning around 5 p.m. in the church parking lot. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which concludes after 40 days with the celebration of Easter, and the faithful traditionally have a smudged cross drawn on their forehead.
Bridget Spitler, the church’s secretary and building manager, said the church had received a lot of positive feedback for offering the drive-thru ashes.
If the elves wish to censure this, so be it, although I do think it is relevant to the issue. But I note that this seems to have its strongest following among female clergy. (see also the articles on Ashes2go).
Let’s not forget that ENS has a video of something like this too. The Diocese of Newark and a church in Washington readily stepped up to give ashen symbolism over substance. “Come here, look friendly, and I’ll smudge you and give you that LENT feeling – nothing required of you, like taking an hour to go through the service (that kneeling nonsense) – confession is so passe’ for cosmopolitan people”.
If these churches really wanted to offer hurried passersby a real Service they could have held one each hour for at least 15 minutes -putting people on their knees for at least 2 minutes beats a drive- by smudge. But these dioceses have a lot to teach the rest of us about substance and growth, don’t they?
I’m still waiting for them to implement a suggestion a visiting priest from Africa had for getting more Americans to go to confession — a drive-through confessional. He said he even had a sign ready to put up outside the drive-through: “Honk and tell or go to hell.”