Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Tag: Ash Wednesday

The bulletin insert for March 2, 2025

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

What Is Lent?

Today is the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany. In just a few days, the church will begin observing Lent. Ash Wednesday falls on March 5 this year, and marks the beginning of the season of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent on March 5.

The period of 40 days, which traditionally does not include Sundays, commemorates the “40 days and 40 nights” (Matthew 4:2) that Jesus fasted in the desert and then resisted temptations from Satan.

The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word for “spring,” and is derived from the German word “lang,” meaning “long,” because during this season before Easter, the hours of daylight become longer.

The Book of Common Prayer explains Lent in this way: “The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265).

The Episcopal Church invites us to observe Lent “by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

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Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

February 28, 2025
Prophetic Voices podcast available for Ash Wednesday
In this episode of Prophetic Voices, we’ll be discussing the the Ash Wednesday lectionary. The texts covered are Isaiah 58:1-12 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.

Our lovely guests this week are:
- The Rev. Jean Mornard, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Huron, S.D., where she has been since 2012. Before being called to the priesthood, she was a professional opera singer for over 20 years, and dabbled in stage management and theater directing. She and her husband, Michael, live in a modest but well-loved house with their five cats, the Khaos Kitties™. They had meant to get two cats and a dog, but the Cat Distribution System found them first.
- The Rev. Meg or Mo Trimm (They/She/He/Xe [zee]), a 2024 graduate of Bexley Seabury Seminary and a newly ordained priest. Mo is a missioner with the Diocese of Northern Michigan. They love art, storytelling, and backyard ecology. You can easily catch their attention with dad jokes or fun facts about plants and bugs.
- The Rev. Dr. Erin Kirby, the mom of an amazing adult daughter and the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Marion, N.C. She is a member of the Diocese of Western North Carolina’s Beloved Community and Racial Reconciliation team. Having grown up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, she moved back “as close to the land of [her] heart as [she] could get” during COVID. In her free time, she and her dog Buttercup enjoy a good long hike or just a day splashing around a mountain stream.
Mentioned in This Episode
- With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial, by Kathryn Mannix
The Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for Racial Reconciliation, hosts Prophetic Voices. For more information on Becoming Beloved Community, visit iam.ec/becomingbelovedcommunity.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. Coming this Advent, Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings for each week of Advent and Christmas Day through the lens of social justice.

You’ll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voices of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink how we hear, see, and interact with the lectionary readings.

Find other podcasts available from the Episcopal Church.

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 12, 2025
Ash Wednesday at Redeemer in 2024
Join us at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington, to mark the start of Lent. This is on Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024. We invite those with questions to ask them. All events are free. You do not need reservations.

All are welcome at Redeemer:
- All races.
- All religions.
- All countries of origin.
- All sexual orientations.
- All genders.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.

Shrove Tuesday

Before we start Lent, we need Fat Tuesday!

The Shrove Tuesday Community Dinner in 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm on February 13, 2024. The dinner is free for everyone. Anyone reading this can come, whether you’ve ever been to Church of the Redeemer or not.

Meet others in the community by gathering around a meal of pancakes, breakfast meats, fruit salad, and syrup in the Parish Hall. This is the lower floor of the building.

Volunteer to help with the Shrove Tuesday Community Dinner

For more information, contact Susan Switzer, sswitzer@redeemer-kenmore.org.

What is Shrove Tuesday?

Celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday (also called “Pancake Tuesday” or “Pancake Day”) is the final day before the 40-day period of Lent begins.

Its name comes from the Germanic-Old English word “shrive,” meaning absolve. Because it comes directly before Lent, a season of fasting and penitence, this was the day that Christians would go to be “shriven” by their confessor.

Shrove Tuesday also became a day for pre-fasting indulgence. In particular, the need to use up rich ingredients such as butter, milk, sugar and eggs before Lent gave rise to the tradition of eating pancakes on this day.

Ash Wednesday

Church of the Redeemer will observe Ash Wednesday in these ways:
- 12:00 noon to 12:30 pm. Church of the Redeemer offers the Holy Eucharist with the optional imposition of Ashes. This is in the church building at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.
- 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. If you can’t make it to a full service at Redeemer, maybe you can stop by the Hangar at Kenmore Town Center for Ashes to Go? This is at 6728 NE 181st Street, about a half mile east of the church building in Kenmore, Washington. Stop by anytime during the two-hour period.
- 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Church of the Redeemer offers the Holy Eucharist with the optional imposition of Ashes. This is in the church building at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.
I am new to all this

Here are some definitions to explain some things you may not be familiar with.

Ash Wednesday

The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday is observed as a fast in the church year of the Episcopal Church. The Ash Wednesday service is one of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 264). Imposition of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service is optional.

(Content taken from Ash Wednesday.)

Blessed Ashes

Ashes blessed for use on Ash Wednesday as a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality. The Hebrew Scriptures frequently mentions the use of ashes as an expression of humiliation and sorrow. Ashes are imposed on the penitent’s forehead with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265). The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is optional.

(Content edited from Ashes, Blessed.)

Lent

Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history.

Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly.

In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

(Content taken from Lent.)

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 9, 2024
Prophetic Voices podcast available for Ash Wednesday
In this episode of Prophetic Voices, we’ll be discussing the lectionary for Ash Wednesday. The texts covered in this episode are Isaiah 58:1-12 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.

Our amazing guests this week are:
- The Rev. Dr. Greg Kimura, vice dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He holds an MDiv from Harvard and a PhD in philosophy of religion from Cambridge University. He is the immediate past president/CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in LA and author of fiction and non-fiction published in the UK and US, including the forthcoming LIVING SANCTUARY, which describes his sanctuary work with immigrant communities in Southern California.
- The esteemed Dr. Sandra Montes, a singer, speaker and writer who loves exploring her Indigenous and Latina roots. She is the dean of chapel at Union Theological Seminary and serves as a member of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. She lives in Texas and New York.
Prophetic Voices is hosted by the Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for Racial Reconciliation. For more information on Becoming Beloved Community, visit iam.ec/becomingbelovedcommunity.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. Coming this Advent, Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings for each week of Advent and Christmas Day through the lens of social justice.

You’ll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voices of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink how we hear, see, and interact with the lectionary readings.

Find other podcasts available from the Episcopal Church.

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
January 26, 2024
Attend Ash Wednesday services in 2023
Church of the Redeemer is having two services for Ash Wednesday in 2023. On February 22, the services begin at these times in the main church building:
- 12:00 noon—In-person only.
- 7:00 pm—In-person and online
The main church building is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. To participate online, go to the parish website at redeemer-kenmore.org.

Ash Wednesday

The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday is observed as a fast in the church year of the Episcopal Church. The Ash Wednesday service is one of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 264). Imposition of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service is optional.

(Content taken from Ash Wednesday.)

Blessed Ashes

Ashes blessed for use on Ash Wednesday as a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality. The Hebrew Scriptures frequently mentions the use of ashes as an expression of humiliation and sorrow. Ashes are imposed on the penitent’s forehead with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265). The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is optional.

(Content edited from Ashes, Blessed.)

Lent

Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history.

Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly.

In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

(Content taken from Lent.)

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 20, 2023
Attend Ash Wednesday services in 2022
Church of the Redeemer is having two services for Ash Wednesday in 2022. On March 2, they begin at these times in the main church building:
- 12:00 noon—In-person only.
- 7:00 pm—In-person and online
The main church building is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. To participate online, go to the parish website at redeemer-kenmore.org.

Keep these things in mind when you attend in-person:
- Bring your mask — People are at different levels of vaccination and comfort in groups. Please plan to wear a mask when in the building.
- Eucharist — There will be a different procedure than what was used before the coronavirus. Those receiving communion will receive the Bread only. One household will communicate at a time, as cued by an usher or the celebrant. Please be patient.
Not everyone has been vaccinated yet or can’t be vaccinated, especially young children. Masks on until it is gone.

Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

Ash Wednesday

The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday is observed as a fast in the church year of the Episcopal Church. The Ash Wednesday service is one of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 264). Imposition of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service is optional.

(Content taken from Ash Wednesday.)

Blessed Ashes

Ashes blessed for use on Ash Wednesday as a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality. The Hebrew Scriptures frequently mentions the use of ashes as an expression of humiliation and sorrow. Ashes are imposed on the penitent’s forehead with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265). The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is optional.

(Content edited from Ashes, Blessed.)

Lent

Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history.

Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly.

In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

(Content taken from Lent.)

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 26, 2022

Third Sunday in Advent (Year A), December 14, 2025. Services at 8:00 am and 10:30 am. Christian education for children and adults at 9:15 am. Be patient, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.