No doubt inherited, at least thematically, from the Jewish practice seen in the Old Testament, the ceremonial use of ashes in the Christian church does not arise until much later. We see this, for example, in the Old Testament itself, as people sit in or cover themselves with ashes as a symbol of mourning and repentance (Esth.
The use of ashes was indeed known in communal demonstrations of humiliation in the ancient world. Perhaps it will also help us to understand how and why it made its judgments and reforms.
Seeing what was the case will better help us understand what the “Anglican tradition” actually is. Instead, the greater need is simply to recover the actual history of the church, a history which has been dramatically obscured in a relatively short amount of time. It does not intend to render a judgment about the permissibility or prudence of using ashes today. The goal of this essay is to lay out the historical record of Ash Wednesday among Anglicans in both England and North America. The Reformers discontinued the use of ashes in the liturgy, and they would not again become a normal fixture of Protestant liturgies until the late 20 th century. To the great surprise of many, the Protestant use of ashes for Ash Wednesday services is a modern phenomenon. It is also easy to assume that this has always been the Anglican practice.īut the actual history tells another story. To observe Ash Wednesday simply is to impose ashes upon the congregation, we assume. Because of this relatively rapid consensus, it is easy to assume that the ritual and the day stand or fall together. This custom is nearly (though not entirely) universal among Anglicans, is very widely practiced among Lutherans, and is becoming more and more common among Presbyterians and other evangelical bodies. Ash Wednesday is upon us and most people who conduct services on the day also practice the ritual imposition of ashes as a part of the liturgy.
0 kommentar(er)
