1. R. L. Copple says:

    Good thought, John. In my former denomination, I may have given you a blank stare too. But having been Orthodox for 16 years now, no deer-in-the-headlight looks now. Our Lent starts March 18th this year, a good bit later than Western Lent.
     
    May everyone have a spiritually beneficial Lent and Easter this year! We describe Lent as a “bright sadness.”
     

  2. Galadriel says:

    Hm…as a Baptist/E-Free hybrid, I’d kind of heard of Ash Wednesday before, but never really stopped to think about it.

  3. Bainespal says:

    I have a lot of respect for the practice of Lent, even though my church and denomination doesn’t observe it.  There is no particular reason that we should have to give anything up, but everything that we do is symbolic, and any reminder of ultimate meaning can be a blessing.  I want to observe it at least once, but I’ve been too cowardly to try so far.
     
    If you ever want to discuss your beliefs about infant baptism or Communion, I will listen, whether or not I ultimately end up staring blankly. 😉

  4. Lauren says:

    I consider my myself  a Lutheran, although my family has been church-less for years now, it’s the denomination my dad was raised in and that I was baptized in. Any church I’ve ever attended has been Lutheran (all that old German ancestry, you know!).
    While I’m familiar with Lent and Ash Wednesday, I don’t remember any of the churches I attended as a kid, doing the ash cross on the forehead, or giving anything up for Lent, although Lent was certainly celebrated.
     
    I think you should totally do a post on infant baptism or communion! I love reading your theological posts. 🙂

    • John Otte says:

      That actually doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t see it done. I’ve served in two parishes now, and I’ve been the one to introduce the congregations to the practice. And both times I’ve done that, I’ve had someone question my doing it as being “too Catholic.” Those old rivalries die hard.

      • Lauren says:

        Glad I’m not the only one who was new to the idea!
        It doesn’t seem too Catholic to me, but I get where the argument is coming from. I know if I went to class with an ash cross on my forehead I’d get a lot of “I thought you weren’t Catholic!” from my friends.
         
        I know what you mean about the rivalries. A Catholic classmate of mine once told me I would burn in hell for being Lutheran.

        He kind of had an attitude problem 😉

        We were studying Dante’s Inferno and got to the section about the Popes that were in Dante’s version of hell. It was kind of funny though, because there was a Hindu girl in the class, and she was totally confused. The Catholic and I are going back and forth about hell, and she’s sitting there, asking “What is Hell?”

What do you think?