This year, Ashes to Go will be available at the corner of Grand & Arsenal in south St. Louis City from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Ashes-to-Go is an ecumenical, short, Ash Wednesday service with imposition of ashes held on the corner of Grand and Arsenal streets in St. Louis. Now in its fourth year, clergy and laity from St. John’s Episcopal Church-Tower Grove participate. “South Grand neighborhood in the City of St. Louis is a perfect place to bring church to the streets,” says the Rev. Teresa Danieley, rector at St. John’s-Tower Grove.
The first two years, the offices of the Bishop received “irate” phone calls from Episcopalians. Last year, your new communications director was happily promoting the event to the media, and was then surprised that making the evening’s news cycle didn’t create waves of joy in these offices. But, curiously, in year three, there were no phone calls of unhappiness.
The initial idea for Ashes To Go arose from a session of an ecumenical clergy Bible study group that Danieley attends weekly. The clerics were discussing differences in sacraments, and about how both Roman Catholics and Protestants may receive the imposition of ashes. “So, we were joking about doing an “Ashes Drive Thru” and then we thought, well why not? We have a great business district. And it is a way to bring church to the streets. As Christians we are called to GO and make disciples and to show God’s love to everyone. We are doing Ashes to Go in order to provide a unique opportunity to pause, to mark our mortality, and celebrate the blessings of this life – even in the midst of a busy work day,” said Danieley.
In 2007, the Rev. Jonathon Edwards, then pastor of Garden Light UCC, took the lead on the project. He had sandwich boards made that said “Ashes to Go.” Maureen Costello, the owner of corner restaurant MoKaBe, offered a tent and free coffee for participants.
Last year clergy participated from UCC, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and Episcopal churches. All of the participating clergy wear albs and purple stoles for a uniform look. They stand on two corners. The number of participants depends on the weather. Last year there were many reasons people stopped: the bus driver working a double shift and unable to make it to his own church; a woman bringing her elderly father by during his half block daily walk; several people who didn’t want the service or the ashes, but saw robed clergy on the street and just wanted to stop to ask for their prayers.
One of the pastors said this was her first experience with imposition of ashes; it was a “high church” experience and she wasn’t sure how she’d react. But in recounting the two hours, she was overcome by how deeply her heart had been touched, “by the need of people for Jesus, people just walking along the street. It was pretty powerful.”
Ashes to Go from Episcopal Diocese of Missouri on Vimeo.
UPDATE 2/16. Last week, we asked readers of the diocesan weekly news, iSeek, to participate in an online survey voicing their reactions to Ashes to Go. (It’s a free SurveyMonkey poll, so we had room for 100 respondents.)
25 of you responded. Of those responding this week, one felt it was not their cup of tea, one thought it was an idea, two thought it was a good idea, and all the rest though it a great idea.
You said: Provocative; It meets a need; evangelical; Exactly what Christ meant when He said:”Go ye therefore…”; In-the-world, not of-the-world; keepin it real!; evangelical; Evangelism!!!; Religious hype; Great Adaptation; Go and witness; Forward-thinking; ecumenical Christianity; spiritual; evangelism; Go for it!; evangelism; Wow!; AWE-some; Radical; Awesome; Inspired; edgy, missional.
- So many people assume that everyone thinks the church is irrelevant. Here is the church visibly on your street corner offering a witness and a reminder both of mortality and of the offer of salvation.
- As Episcopalians too many of us are worried about our “sometimes stuffy tradition” and how this will “look” instead of asking, what would Jesus do?
- (my face tells you more of what a I think — kind of scrunched up nose…)
- Maybe Ashes on the Walk would convey the same innovational thrust but not the quickie (and superficial) quality of -to-Go. However, the drive thru bank and the drive thru pharmacy both give the same quality of service as required by their rules as on gets by parking, climbing in/out of the car and being tempted by the merchandising inside the facility. Your stories of why people came speaks to the validity of the experience. It does offend the notion that one must be a regular church member to receive Christianity’s blessing. It sounds as if the rite was seriously handled and not like the waving Statue of Liberty tax services.
- What an awesome way to bring God into the streets, cause for pause, reflection – and to show that the “church” isn’t so stuffy that it has to be contained inside the walls of a building. It’s real, it’s right here, it’s for everyone!!!
- The Church needs continually to find new ways to reach people in their daily lives!
- I think it is a great idea and this is the first I have heard of it. Keep it up. Show, by our actions, who we are – God’s own children.
- If people don’t know we exist, how can they join us. For a few minutes people were perhaps thinking religiously — sometimes a ew minutes is all it takes to turn a life around.
- What a wonderful way to bring the joy of Christ to a neighborhood.
- daring to use the “E-word”, it is not only ecumenical but also Evangelical.
- Radical, as in Jesus-like
- This is another way to take the church to the market place. That is where the people are.
- What I like about ashes-to-go is that it lets us (OK, them) take the liturgical year and liturgical practice to the streets and to the people without feeling they have to bring something more “relevant” than the BCP into the nave. We can all get what we need. This is being evangelical without sacrificing the tradition.
The first respondents all identified themselves as attending church regularly, and all but one as members of the Diocese of Missouri. If you’d like to add your thoughts to the poll, feel free to do so here. A set of photos from last year available here.
- Metro II Map by convocation
- St John-TG St. John's Episcopal Church, 3664 Arsenal St., St. Louis, MO 63116, ph 314-772-3970, www.towergrovechurch.org
