Editing Ash Wednesday (section)

====Ashes to Go====
[[File: Ashes to Go at Mizner Park.jpg|thumb|Two [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] priests distribute ashes to passersby in the American city of [[Boca Raton, Florida|Boca Raton]] as part of the Ashes to Go movement.]]
Since 2007, some members of major Christian Churches in the [[United States]], including Anglicans, Lutherans, United Church of Christ, and Methodists, have participated in 'Ashes to Go' activities, in which clergy go outside of their [[church (building)|churches]] to public places, such as [[downtown|city centres]], [[sidewalk]]s and [[railroad station]]s, to distribute ashes to passers-by,<ref name="CatholicHerald2016"/><ref name="Grossman">{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-02-21/lent-ash-wednesday-ashes-to-go/53195664/1|title=Episcopal priests offer 'Ashes to Go' as Ash Wednesday begins Lent|last=Grossman|first=Cathy Lynn|publisher=[[USA Today]]|access-date=2 April 2014|quote=Dubbed Ashes to Go, it's a contemporary spin on the Ash Wednesday practice followed chiefly in Episcopal, Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran denominations.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.religionnews.com/2014/03/05/photo-slideshow-ashes-go-meets-commuters-washington-d-c/|title='Ashes to Go' meets commuters in Washington, D.C.|last=Banks|first=Adelle M.|date=5 March 2014|quote=Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, leader of the [[Episcopal Diocese of Washington]], and members of [[Church of St. Paul's, K Street (Washington, D.C.)|St. Paul's Parish]] in Washington, D.C., imposed ashes on commuters and other passers-by on Ash Wednesday (5 March) near the Foggy Bottom Metro station in the nation's capital.|publisher=Religion News Service|access-date=2 April 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407060853/http://www.religionnews.com/2014/03/05/photo-slideshow-ashes-go-meets-commuters-washington-d-c/|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> even to people waiting in their cars for a stoplight to change.<ref name="The United Methodist Church">{{cite web|url=http://rethinkchurch.org/article/got-ashes-chicago-church-takes-lent-streets|title=Got ashes? Chicago church takes Lent to the streets|date=27 April 2011|publisher=The United Methodist Church|access-date=2 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229083630/http://rethinkchurch.org/article/got-ashes-chicago-church-takes-lent-streets |archive-date=29 February 2012}}</ref> The Anglican priest Emily Mellott of Calvary Church in [[Lombard, Illinois|Lombard]] took up the idea and turned it into a movement, stated that the practice was also an act of [[evangelism]].<ref name=AshesToGo>{{cite web|url=http://ashestogo.org/about/|title=About Ashes to Go|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407095557/http://ashestogo.org/about/|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-02-21/lent-ash-wednesday-ashes-to-go/53195664/1|title=Episcopal priests offer 'Ashes to Go' as Ash Wednesday begins Lent|last=Grossman|first=Cathy Lynn|publisher=[[USA Today]]|access-date=2 April 2014|quote=Anyone can accept the ashes although, Mellott says, non-Christians tend not to seek them. Still, she says, "If anyone does, we view it as an act of evangelism, and we make it clear this is a part of the Christian tradition."}}</ref>

Anglicans and Catholics in parts of the [[United Kingdom]] such as [[Sunderland, Tyne and Wear|Sunderland]], are offering Ashes to Go together: Marc Lyden-Smith, the priest of [[St Mary's Church, Sunderland|Saint Mary's Church]], stated that the [[ecumenical]] effort is a "tremendous witness in our city, with Catholics and Anglicans working together to start the season of Lent, perhaps reminding those who have [[fallen away]] from the Church, or have never been before, that the Christian faith is alive and active in Sunderland."<ref name="CatholicHerald2016">{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/02/04/catholics-and-anglicans-to-distribute-ashes-to-shoppers-in-sunderland-city-centre/|title=Catholics and Anglicans to distribute ashes to shoppers in Sunderland city centre|date=4 February 2016|work=[[The Catholic Herald]]|language=en|quote=On Wednesday St Mary's Catholic church and Sunderland Minster, an Anglican church, will be working together to offer "Ashes to Go"{{snd}}a new approach to a centuries-old Christian tradition.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205070901/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/02/04/catholics-and-anglicans-to-distribute-ashes-to-shoppers-in-sunderland-city-centre/|archive-date=5 February 2016}}</ref> The Catholic Student Association of [[Kent State University]], based at the University Parish Newman Center, offered ashes to university students who were going through the Student Center of that institution in 2012,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_b2e8b91e-ef8a-523a-aac4-1c2623cb6497.html|title=Students make time to get ashes|date=23 February 2012|work=TV2|publisher=Kent Wired|author=Anthony Ezzo|access-date=2 April 2014|archive-date=14 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214120423/http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_b2e8b91e-ef8a-523a-aac4-1c2623cb6497.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Douglas Clark of St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church in [[Statesboro, Georgia|Statesboro]], among others, have participated in Ashes to Go.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/57542/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140403001330/http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/57542/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 April 2014|title=A modern way to begin the Lenten season|last=Brandon|first=Loretta|work=Statesboro Herald|access-date=3 April 2014|quote=Ministers participating in Ashes to Go include the Rev. Dan Lewis from First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Joan Kilian from Trinity Episcopal Church, the Rev. Bill Bagwell and the Rev. Jonathan Smith from Pittman Park United Methodist Church, the Rev. Douglas Clark of St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church, and the Rev. James Byrd, from St. Andrew's Chapel Church.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kfbk.com/articles/kfbk-news-461777/catholics-who-cant-make-it-to-12127827/|title=Catholics Who Can't Make it to Church can Get 'Ashes to Go'|date=5 March 2014|publisher=KFBK News and Radio|access-date=2 April 2014|quote=Some Catholics who couldn't make it to church this morning got their "Ashes on the Go." Father Tony Prandini with Good Shepherd Catholic Parish was conducting Ash Wednesday rituals{{snd}}marking foreheads{{snd}}outside of the State Capitol.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407065144/http://www.kfbk.com/articles/kfbk-news-461777/catholics-who-cant-make-it-to-12127827/|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref>

On Ash Wednesday 2017, Father Paddy Mooney, the priest of St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in the Irish town of [[Glenamaddy]], set up an Ashes to Go station through which commuters could drive and receive ashes from their car; the parish church also had "drive-through prayers during Lent with people submitting requests into a box left in the church grounds without having to leave their car".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christiantoday.com/article/ashestogo.at.start.of.lent.as.clergy.offer.commuters.ash.n.dash/105145.htm|title=#AshesToGo at Start of Lent As Clergy Offer Commuters 'Ash n' Dash'|last=Farley|first=Harry|date=1 March 2017|publisher=[[Christian Today]]|language=en|quote=Commuters can drive in the gate of St Patrick's Church, in Glenmady, receive ashes from their car and drive out the other side. 'We looked at the situation on the ground. People and families are on the move all the time,' parish priest Father Paddy Mooney told the Irish Catholic. 'It's about meeting people where they are.' The same church will also offer drive-through prayers during Lent with people submitting requests into a box left on the church grounds without having to leave their car.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301131053/http://www.christiantoday.com/article/ashestogo.at.start.of.lent.as.clergy.offer.commuters.ash.n.dash/105145.htm|archive-date=1 March 2017}}</ref> Reverend Trey Hall, pastor of Urban Village United Methodist Church, stated that when his local church offered ashes in Chicago "nearly 300 people received ashes{{snd}}including two people who were waiting in their car for a stoplight to change."<ref name="The United Methodist Church"/>

In 2013, churches not only in the United States but also at least one church each in the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Africa, participated in Ashes to Go.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/what-ashes-go-where-get-atg-new-york-1559432|title=What Is 'Ashes To Go'? Where To Get 'ATG' In New York|date=4 March 2014|work=[[International Business Times]]|access-date=2 April 2014|quote=In 2012, that initiative, "Ashes to Go," caught on nationally, and a year later the idea went international, with churches in the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa also practicing the easy penitence method.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407112607/http://www.ibtimes.com/what-ashes-go-where-get-atg-new-york-1559432|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> Outside of their [[church building]], Saint Stephen Martyr Lutheran Church in [[Canton, Ohio|Canton]] offered Ashes to Go for "believers whose schedules make it difficult to attend a traditional service" in 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/stark-county/jackson-township-church-offers-ashes-to-go/39104341|title=Jackson Township church offers 'Ashes to Go'|last=Coffey|first=Tim|date=10 February 2016|publisher=WKYC|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In the United States itself 34 states and the District of Columbia had at least one [[church building|church]] taking part. Most of these churches (parishes) were Episcopal, but there were also several Methodist churches, as well as Presbyterian and Catholic churches.<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=7 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407095738/http://ashestogo.org/join-in/where-to-find-ashes-to-go/|publisher=Ashes to Go|title=Where to find Ashes to Go This Year|url=http://ashestogo.org/join-in/where-to-find-ashes-to-go/|url-status=live}}</ref>