epiScope

For Christians observing Lent, sacrifices to protect God's creation are Crystal Clear

Growing number go on 'carbon diet'
By BETH DALEY
THE BOSTON GLOBE
March 15, 2008

Many Christians sacrifice a personal pleasure such as chocolate, liquor or cigarettes to mark Lent, the period of penance and prayer before Easter.

This year, Nina Scott is giving up carbon.

The retired University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor is hanging wet laundry on a clothesline in her basement to prevent emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the dryer. She is car-pooling as much as she can and turning off lights more often.

These actions will do little to slow global warming -- at most, Scott will probably reduce her "carbon footprint" by 1 or 2 percent during Lent -- but she says it's important to do nonetheless.

"For me, it's that connection between protecting nature and faith," said Scott, one of about a dozen parishioners at Amherst's Grace Episcopal Church who are following a Lenten "carbon diet" until Easter and, hopefully, beyond.

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Meditations

Communities of Faith: Steps toward a meaningful Lent
By Candice Hannigan
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
03/06/08

On a recent cold and overcast Saturday morning before many were even awake, the Rev. Patricia Templeton and a group of parishioners took a walk around their church's five wooded acres.

The early risers were making a pilgrimage of sorts through the 14 Stations of the Cross on display around St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church. Stations of the Cross is a Lenten exercise in which participants follow a symbolic path describing the one that Jesus took before his death and Resurrection.

The stations were created by parishioners, who fashioned crosses at each display out of twigs, tile and broken glass, stones and rock, and watercolor paints.

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Modern Meditation
Parish puts sculptures along path, reflections on iPods
By Pat van den Beemt
North County News
03/05/08

Faith and technology have met at St. James Episcopal Church in Monkton, where two Scouts, a sculptor and parish leaders combined their talents to transform an outdoor stroll into a spiritual experience.

Eagle Scout Zach Wright, of Sparks, built and installed 14 wooden shrines along a path behind the church. During Lent, they hold sculptures by Alex Hallmark, of Blowing Rock, N.C., depicting the Stations of the Cross.

Debra Donnelly-Barton, director of the Center for Spiritual Development at St. James, wrote and recorded meditations on each station and transferred them to iPods, devices most frequently used to download music from the Internet. And Eagle Scout candidate Chris DiFatta, of Baldwin, made benches and informational signs.

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Ladies who lunch

Lent & lunch; Menu is rich in tradition
by ADRIANA JANOVICH
Yakima (WA) Herald-Republic
March 03, 2008

SUNNYSIDE -- They're not feeding 5,000. But sometimes it feels like they are.

They arrive in the morning -- as early as 7:30 or 8 -- to slice nearly two dozen pies, simmer 25 gallons of soup, brew more than 100 cups of coffee. There are tables to set, too.

The women of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church give a different meaning to the term "ladies who lunch." Each Wednesday during Lent, they invite the community to the parish hall for hot soup, homemade pie and conversation.

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Going green for Lent

Many use period of penance to aid environment
By Beth Daley
Boston (MA) Globe
March 3, 2008

Many Christians sacrifice a personal pleasure such as chocolate, liquor, or cigarettes to mark Lent, the period of penance and prayer before Easter.

This year, Nina Scott is giving up carbon.

The retired University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor is hanging wet laundry on a clothesline in her basement to prevent emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from using the dryer. She is carpooling as much as she can and turning off lights more often.

These actions will do little to slow global warming - at most, Scott will probably reduce her "carbon footprint" by 1 or 2 percent during Lent - but she says it's important to do nonetheless.

"For me, it's that connection between protecting nature and faith," said Scott, who is one of about a dozen parishioners at Amherst's Grace Episcopal Church who are following a Lenten carbon "diet" until Easter and, hopefully, beyond.

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Labor for Lent

Churches use the 40 days before Easter to carry on mission projects
By Yonat Shimron
Raleigh (NC) News & Observer
February 29, 2008

Alex Richbourg usually gives up something for Lent -- chocolate or coffee.

But this year, the 41-year-old computer programmer from Apex decided to take something on.

He and 17 other members of Raleigh's Church of the Good Shepherd spent a week in Mexico building a home for a poor family.

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Local woman joins group rebuilding New Orleans
By Janet Redyke
Straus News
February 29, 2008

Vernon - Margaret Fortune, recently returned from a volunteer rebuilding trip to Katrina-devastated New Orleans, is proud to say she is helping people.

Fortune, now retired, had been coordinator of religious education at St. Francis Church in Vernon. She took the trip this winter as one of 15 volunteers who traveled to New Orleans with the help and efforts of Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Paterson. Volunteers paid their own way but were hosted by the diocese.

Working in New Orleans’ lower 9th ward, one of the most destroyed areas, Fortune and her group — who ranged in age from 41 to 74 — had three projects to undertake. Their first was erecting a temporary wall and shaping up a flooded Walgreen’s, after the damaged store was sold for a discounted price to the All Souls Episcopal Church to be used as the new church and meeting area.

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Federal cuts squeezing local food pantries
By Susan Abram
Los Angeles (CA) Daily News
02/29/2008

Federal cuts to pantries have forced some local agencies to turn away needy seniors who want to sign up for government subsidized foods.

At the West Valley Food Pantry in Woodland Hills, where nearly 250 food boxes are distributed the first Wednesday of each month to seniors, no new clients are being accepted.

"We'll continue feeding those that have already signed up, but we can't sign up any new seniors," said Jeanne Bain, co-director of the pantry.

It's gotten to the point that spaces become available only after clients die, she said.

"We can almost tell what's happening with the economy with what's happening here," she said of the new faces coming to the pantry at Prince of Peace Episcopal Church.

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Local church adds sign language to help deliver the word of God
By Amy Jo Johnson
Bay City (MI) Times
March 01, 2008

The Rev. Stacy Walker-Frontjes' first encounter with Jerry Jones stands out in her memory.

It was Pentecost, she said, and she had just preached about sharing the gospel in a language that people can understand.

''And here comes Jerry,'' she said.

Jones, 47, of Bay City, had stopped by St. Alban's Episcopal Church, where Walker-Frontjes is pastor. Jones is deaf and his message was simple: He was looking for a church.

Walker-Frontjes says she knew she must practice what she preaches. The church preaches that it welcomes everyone.

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View from the Pew

The fast track to grace goes through Lent
Local churches help followers learn that sacrifice brings out the important things in life
Mary Adamski
Honolulu (HI) Star-Bulletin
March 1, 2008

Giving up candy for Lent is a cliché. For children it's promoted as an introduction to the concept of sacrifice. It's practice for fasting on a larger scale. A lot of adults continue with variations on that theme, a simple fix that could benefit the waistline as well as the soul.

Christian churches around town are offering more adult choices for people making the journey toward Easter. There's many a chance to take a little break from the multitasking, wheel-spinning, appointment-keeping hullabaloo of daily life to reflect on what Lent and Easter are all about.

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Providing roadside assistance for spiritual travelers
By The Rev. Susan Esco Chandler
Amesbury (MA) News
Feb 28, 2008

Amesbury - There’s the cartoon showing a minister standing by the church door, shaking the hand of someone leaving a Sunday service. The person is commenting to the cleric, “Nice service. Just what do you do the rest of the week?”

If you’re in church work, the cartoon carries some wry humor; if you’re the person leaving the church, it’s probably not funny. Fact is, it’s a valid question for all of us. What do we do “the rest of the week?”

For those of us who have chosen to live out our vocation in the Church, the rest of the week is usually everything, anything and nothing of what is on our calendars. There is another old joke, actually a Woody Allen quote: “How do you make God laugh? Just tell Him about your plans.” Lot’s [sic] of truth there for all of us.

It’s all here … and sometimes we blog.

The meaning of ashes

Interim rector performs final St. Peter's rite
By JEAN PRESCOTT
Sun Herald (MS)

The Rev. Ted Dawson performed his final duties as interim rector of St. Peter's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Gulfport with a pair of services Ash Wednesday at the recently restored sanctuary on 15th Street.

The counsel of his sermon as well as the scriptural messages of the day were to remember the ashes from which we came and to which we shall return, but always with the anticipation of resurrection.

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Observing Lent
Thou shalt not...
Self-sacrifice during Lent can bring Christians closer to God, but so can good deeds and devotions
By Jane Hawes
COLUMBUS (OH) DISPATCH
February 8, 2008

Chocolate consumption is poised to plummet this week.

The 40-day Lenten season started Wednesday, and with it the long-standing tradition among many Christians, particularly Catholics, of giving up something they hold dear.

"It helps us remember, everything we have is a gift," said the Rev. Charles Klinger, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westerville.

Bishop Ken Price Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio said the idea of sacrifice dates to the Old Testament, and it was meant to increase awareness of people's relationship with God.

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Lent seen as time for positive change

On Ash Wednesday, clergy urge sacrifice, reflection in weeks leading to Easter
By Erin Gibson Allen
Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette
February 07, 2008

Lent is traditionally a time of sacrifice and repentance, but some South churches this year also encouraged their members to think of it as a time to focus on making a difference in the world.
…
The Rev. Louis Hays, of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon, said that his church offered three services yesterday, during which the imposition of ashes was performed.

It is a day of reflection and repentance, the Rev. Hays said.

"Ash Wednesday is one of the most penitential days of the year, comparable to Good Friday."

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Church giving out bracelets with anti-complaint Lenten message
By CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN
Huntington (WVA) Herald-Dispatch
Feb 06, 2008

HUNTINGTON -- St. John's Episcopal Church will be giving out "A Complaint Free World" purple wrist bracelets to its church members on Sunday to encourage them during Lent to "speak only with grace, no complaints." The church began to pass out the bracelets during their Ash Wednesday services.

Will Bowen, a minister in Kansas City, Mo., who started the campaign, challenged his members in 2006 to refrain from complaining and gave them wrist bracelets as a reminder. The goal is to achieve 21 days without uttering a complaint. Bowen stated in a press release that the average time period is four to eight months for the goal to be reached. Almost 5 million bracelets have been distributed to people in more than 80 countries.

The Rev. John Stonesifer, priest at St. John's, stated in a press release that "St. John's is a very upbeat congregation. These complaint-free bracelets are a way of reminding us, just as Lent does, to be more aware of our thoughts and actions and to take steps towards being a more positive and heavenly person."

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Many Ash Wednesday services canceled
By TOM HEINEN
Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel
Feb. 6, 2008

Although shoveling and driving through the swirling snowstorm provided plenty of opportunities for penance, traditional observances of Ash Wednesday were disrupted as hundreds of churches and parochial schools in the Milwaukee metropolitan area closed or canceled activities and services.

Some churches whose services include the imposition of ashes - typically marking a cross on the forehead as a sign of penance and a reminder of mortality at the start of Lent - may reschedule. Some may not.
…
Both the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints in downtown Milwaukee were going ahead with Wednesday afternoon and evening services as scheduled, though turnout was expected to be much smaller than normal.

Bishop Steven Miller of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee sent an e-mail to parishes because he had received inquiries Tuesday about the possible cancellation of Ash Wednesday services due to the storm.

"It is important to note that the Ash Wednesday Liturgy requires neither the imposition of ashes nor a celebration of the Eucharist," Miller wrote in the e-mail. He urged pastors to encourage their parishioners to take part in "the core of Lenten observance and devotion, namely, special acts of discipline and self-denial, of which the Ash Wednesday liturgy is a reminder."

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Nigeria: Lent - Akinola, Iweha, Others Urge Submission to God
This Day (Lagos)
7 February 2008

Christians have been urged to use the 40 days of Lent, which began on Tuesday to submit and return to God.

Archbishop Peter Akinola Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

"Christians should breach the gap between what we say we believe in and the lives we live. "Enough of the display everywhere, but let our hearts be in what we believe and what we believe will influence what we do, " Akinola said.

The Anglican primate encouraged Christians to recall the passion and suffering of Jesus Christ during the 40 days of prayer and fasting, starting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday before Easter.

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A Lenten discipline

Some in the blogosphere seem to think the Episcopal Church hasn't encouraged the taking up of a Lenten discipline.

That seems odd, since, among other things, the Presiding Bishop has designated the First Sunday in Lent as Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday and asked all Episcopalians to take an active part in the Episcopal Church's ongoing commitment to fight extreme poverty and disease, particularly during Lent (an effort that those same bloggers have scorned as insufficiently pious).

Perhaps it's time for all of us to meditate deeply on that first reading for Ash Wednesday... 

Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
    Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
    "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
    Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
    Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
    Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
    Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
    Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
    Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
    if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
    The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
    Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

Isaiah 58:1-12

Formed of the dust

Ashes an asset
Companies sell palm leaves, cinders to meet high demand
Gary Pettus
Clarion Ledger
February 6, 2008

Hurricane Katrina hit St. Peter's-by-the-Sea so hard, the Episcopal church in Gulfport had no ashes to rise from.

Those were gone too.

"We were located on the beach," says the Rev. Edward O'Connor, the church's leader when the storm struck in 2005. "We didn't have anything left."

Even the ashes stored for the observance of Ash Wednesday had been scattered, like the remains of a loved one, over the sea.

So O'Connor found a solution he turns to this day as deacon of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Jackson: He buys them.

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Goal during Lent: Put 'meat on bones' of Scripture readings
Austin Kaus
Mitchell (SD) Daily Republic
February 06, 2008

To some, Lent means a church service and fish on Fridays.

The Rev. Father Liam Muller, of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Mitchell, wants to change that.

During Lent, a six-week span recognized by some Christians, Muller will spend every Wednesday educating adults about the suffering of Jesus Christ until his crucifixion.

The 40-day period of Lent — Sundays don’t count, since they are considered days of resurrection — begins today, Ash Wednesday, and ends on Easter, March 23, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Christ Episcopal offers programs for Lent
Springfield News-Leader

Christ Episcopal Church invites Christians of all denominations to join in two programs offered to mark the season of Lent, which begins Ash Wednesday, Feb. 6, and culminates on Easter Sunday, March 23.

“Lent is a time of heightened attention to prayer, worship and sacrifice, and the aim of that is a deeper relationship with the living God,” said the Rev. Kenneth L. Chumbley, rector of Christ Episcopal Church. “The Lenten season gives us an opportunity to push aside the distractions of day-to-day living, so we can be much more attentive to God and more aware of God’s love and care for us. That’s why we're offering this Lenten prayer workshop and book discussion group.”

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Ash Wednesday: Services usher in a time of sacrifice
By JOY LEIKER
Muncie (IN) Star Press

Today Christians begin their march toward Easter, and many will mark the day, and themselves, with a black cross of ashes on their forehead.

Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten season.

At St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is one of the busiest days of the year. Pastor John Kiefer said the church, which serves Catholic students from Ball State University, has more services on Ash Wednesday than any other day of the year.
The first of four services began at midnight.

Over the weekend, Kiefer -- and pastors elsewhere -- burned the now-dried-up palms from Palm Sunday 2007 to create ashes.

It's historically a Catholic practice, though Episcopal and Lutheran churches also conduct Ash Wednesday services and celebrate the 40 days leading up to Easter. (Technically, the count of 40 days doesn't include the six Sundays that fall between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, on March 23.)

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Uganda: Today is Ash Wednesday
New Vision (Kampala)
5 February 2008
Josephine Maseruka

Hundreds of Christians will today throng churches to receive ash, a sign of beginning the 40 days of fasting and abstinence, writes Josephine Maseruka.

Lent, according to Msgr. Paul Ssemwogerere, the vicar general of Kampala Archdiocese, is a time of self-examination, repentance, and helping the needy.

Christians are encouraged to fast what they cherish most and not what is scarce.

Those who abstain from eating meat or taking beer must use the money they save on buying those items to help the needy.

During Lent, Catholics abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday.

But Anglican Bishop Zac Niringiye said Protestants are encouraged to fast anything of their choice. There will be prayers at All Saints Church and Christ the King Church in Kampala today.

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An International Bond

Church-led event WomanKind draws Iranian author
Christen Duxbury
Richmond.com
February 06, 2008

WomanKind – a workshop made for and by women – is taking on an international flavor this year.

The St. James' Episcopal Church event gives women a chance to be encouraged spiritually and intellectually by other women.

The two-day event, held Friday, Feb. 15 and Saturday, Feb. 16, features seven speakers from around the world. While the event is Christian-based, this year's wide range of speakers gives it an international, interfaith focus, said the Rev. Dana Corsello, pastor at St. James and founder of WomanKind.

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Bringing in the Shroves

Ash Wednesday signals start of Lenten season
By W. WINSTON SKINNER
The Times-Herald
2/5/08

Today is Shrove Tuesday, and tomorrow is the beginning of Lent — a time each year when Christians ponder Christ's sacrifices.

Tomorrow will be Ash Wednesday. Several churches are planning events for today and tomorrow as the liturgical calendar turns a page. Shrove comes from an old English word that means to hear the confession of sins, be assured of forgiveness and receive spiritual counsel. Since many people traditionally give up rich foods for Lent, Shrove Tuesday has become associated with pancakes.

It’s all here … And don’t miss:

The High Holy Church of Our Lady of the Bandwidth and All Angels
Presents for Your Consideration and Education
Shrovis Ritualis

REMEMBER:  Shroves can't be purchased -- only Lent.

Spiritual spring cleaning

‘A deeper reflection’
By: Rhonda Morrow
Texarkana Gazette
02/03/2008

In a society of self-indulgence, you hear a lot about me, me, me. But for many, the somber season of Lent offers a time of a spiritual spring cleaning, when they can take spiritual inventory.

Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts until Good Friday, is a multifaceted discipline and includes fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion and simplicity.

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It's almost Lent!

Churches host pancake dinners to kick off lent
By Adam Koob
The Natchez Democrat
February 2, 2008

NATCHEZ — On Tuesday night, while many are nursing hangovers or cleaning fading face paint, local churches will be celebrating Fat Tuesday in a slightly different fashion.

They’ll be flipping pancakes.

To usher in the start of the Lenten season, area churches will be having pancake dinners as part of their Shrove Tuesday celebrations.

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Lent is time to get fit spiritually
Toledo (OH) BLADE
February 2, 2008
…
The imposition of ashes on a person's forehead, an ancient ritual that will be performed in many churches next week on Ash Wednesday, serves as a reminder of one's sin and mortality.

"The ashes are a very traditional symbol of penitence," said the Rev. Margaret Sammons of St. Michael's in the Hills Episcopal Church. "But I think the deeper meaning is the symbol of our mortality. As in the words we say [when administering ashes], 'Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.' None of us are superhuman. We can't do it all. We can't carry the load all by ourselves. We have limits."

At the evening service on Ash Wednesday at the Ottawa Hills church, where Ms. Sammon is co-rector with her husband, the Rev. Greg Sammons, the congregation is asked to write Lenten resolutions on pieces of paper and then burn them in an outdoor grill.

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Ash Wednesday opens season of Lent
By Patricia Farrell Aidem, Megan Bagdonas and Samantha Gonzaga
Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram
02/02/2008

In most Christian faiths, Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season of soul-searching and repentance for the 40 days leading up to the most joyous of feasts, Easter.

Starting with Ash Wednesday, Lent observes the weeks Jesus Christ spent in the desert fasting and praying before returning to Jerusalem.

There, in a single week, he was honored, betrayed and crucified, before rising from the dead, fulfilling his mission as savior.

In recognizing Christ's sacrifice, Christians most commonly observe Lent with their own sacrifices.

For the Rev. Virginia Benson, pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Torrance, Lent is a time for communal grieving.

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Love Life Live Lent

Polish thy neighbour’s shoes, Anglicans urged
Ruth Gledhill
The Times (UK)
February 2, 2008

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have joined forces to tell Anglicans to get down on their knees – and polish their neighbour’s shoes.

Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu are backing a church Facebook group urging members to find time in their busy lives to complete 50 actions over the seven weeks of Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday next week. The aim is “to help you become a better neighbour and transform your world for the better”. Actions include polishing someone’s shoes on Maundy Thursday, a reference to Jesus’s washing of the feet of His Disciples; making someone laugh; and leaving a thank-you note for the postman.

Most are deemed “appropriate for those of all faiths or none”.

The Facebook group, Love Life Live Lent, appears today along with sites on MySpace and the photo-sharing website Flickr, in the Church of England’s first significant entry into online social networking. It is hoped that members of the networks will upload photos of themselves doing the Lent actions.

It’s all here …

Late for Lent

Ruth Gledhill - Articles of faith
Times Online - Ruth Gledhill - WBLG
Ruth Gledhill weblog
Friday, 23 February 2007
The joke's on me

Things have been getting a little heavy lately, so just five days before we enter the Christian season of fasting and penitence and I don my sackcloth and ashes for sins committed over the past 12 months, 12 days even, I thought it time to lighten up a little with a look at the Church of England's Love Life Live Lent campaign.

It's all here ... And I thought things were getting heavy around here. But boy, is Ruth going to be surprised when she shows up for church next Wednesday.

UPDATE: The post is corrected, and Ruth Gledhill is on the liturgical track with the rest of Western Christianity. For future reference, Palm Sunday is April 1 and Easter is April 8.

Out of the Ashes

from Ash Wednesday
T.S. Eliot

Pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgment not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Didn't expect to find this here, on the Couric & Co. CBS News webpage. But editor Greg Kandra is in the ordination process to become a Roman Catholic deacon. Way cool, Greg--your Anglican brothers and sisters are praying for you!

'Fish sticks and ashes'

This is a curious story. I can't quite put my finger on it, but to me it strikes a strange note. See if you agree.

Ashes: Not just for Catholics nowadays
The Pueblo Chieftain Online
Published: Saturday February 17, 2007
By MARVIN READ
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Once upon a time, there was a Christian church, origins of which are chronicled in the New Testament's "Acts of the Apostles." While not all the members of the new church thought the same, they developed a prayer, worship and liturgical life that developed with a basic and essential sense of unity for a thousand years.

Then, in 1054, came the split that divided the Christians into Catholics and Orthodox. Almost 500 years later, the Reformation began a process that would see Christian churches - nearly all of them trying to be and look very un-Catholic - springing up in Europe and, eventually, around the globe.

While tenets and beliefs remained more or less in harmony, liturgical traditions generally became far simpler in the reformed churches and their many spinoffs.

For Roman Catholics, the pre-Easter season of Lent might have been characterized as the season of fish sticks and ashes; for Protestants, relatively much less.

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