GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Wednesday is the first day of the holy season of Lent, and St. Anne's Episcopal Church in De Pere is offering ashes on the go.
"Ashes to Go" is the parish's way of bringing a shorter version of the traditional services to the people who don't have time.
“It's really targeted for people who have very busy lives, but they want to have an active component of their faith as a part of that," said St. Anne’s Episcopal Church Rector Father Tyler Richards. "So, we set up these little mini ceremonies so that people can come and be reminded what Ash Wednesday is about, and receive their ashes.”
They offered "Ashes to Go" in the parking lot of St. Anne's from 7 to 8 in the morning and 4:30 to 6 at night, but Father Richards had another idea and wanted to bring the services to the UW Green Bay students. He said that decision was a "no brainer".
"Making ourselves available to that age group, is something that's really important, because that's the time of questioning," said Father Richards. "That's a time of trying to find out who we are as individuals in the secular world, but also sometimes in the spiritual world."
The church saw double the amount of people for the morning services this year, and predict to see double that for the evening services.
“Not everybody has time to stop and go to church for an hour in the middle of their day," said Father Richards. "And so, what the church has to do is then go to where the people are, just kind of what Jesus did.”
