Drive-thru ashes, do-it-yourself baggies: Churches adapt to an Ash Wednesday upended by COVID-19 Ryan Cormier, Delaware News Journal
Ash Wednesday: 4 things to know
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WILMINGTON, Del. – At Our Lady of Lourdes, the Rev. Steven B. Giuliano won t be using his finger this year to make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of his congregation for Ash Wednesday.
The changes don t stop there. Instead of saying Repent and believe in the gospel to each worshiper, he will say it once to the entire church while socially distant from the crowd instead of face-to-face. And the church won t be celebrating Stations of the Cross in person, instead, having parishioners watch online.
As the one-year-mark of the pandemic approaches, the Rev. John O’Neill of St. James Church in Danielson, said it’s been a hard year for everyone, as the pandemic is even preventing the Christian tradition of Ash Wednesday to continue without changes.
“I tell people to hang in there,” O’Neill said. “This year’s been toughest year we’ve experienced.”
On Feb. 10, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich issued a release detailing the changes that have been made in the diocese regarding Ash Wednesday services. The main change is that, in the interest of minimizing physical contact, ashes, after being blessed, will be sprinkled onto recipients instead of being marked in the shape of a cross on their forehead.
A Blessing Box installed on the property of St. James Episcopal Church of Batavia, New York. The box began offering services to the less fortunate in February 2021. | Courtesy Diana Leiker
A congregation in New York has installed a “blessing box” on their church property to provide food and clothing for those in need during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
St. James Episcopal Church of Batavia installed the box on Tuesday and filled it with various items, including food, toiletries, hats, gloves, socks, and face masks on Wednesday.
The box was the product of a collaboration between St. James Episcopal and three other nearby churches: Batavia First Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church of Batavia, and Resurrection Roman Catholic Church.
Welcoming words with Reverend Richard Easterling
Meet the new priest-in-charge of St. James Episcopal Church
Helen Farrell
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Reverend Richard Easterling and his husband
David Wohlgemuth. Richard is the new
priest-in-charge of St. James Episcopal Church, who is settling into the role after six years as the rector of St. George’s Church in New Orleans.
This must be an odd time to begin a new assignment. When did you arrive in Florence and what were your first impressions?
Richard: We arrived on December 23 on one of Delta’s inaugural quarantine-free flights. It was great to be here for Christmas. The Bishop had been tending to the church, so we worked together for the Christmas Eve service and he, very generously, gave me Christmas Day off. Our experience of transatlantic travel is that usually we would hit the ground running and just exhaust ourselves during the day, but because of the lockdown measures jetlag was more difficult than it’s
Memories of the Howard Johnson‘s restaurant on Lincoln Way East have regularly appeared in this column. Numerous readers have commented on the popular fried clam dinners that were served there every week.
Others have stated their first real job was at the restaurant. Yet others have shared their fond memories of the owners.
Nine years ago I received a letter from Stephanie (Plank) Levengood, daughter of Martha and Dave Plank who ran the eatery. The Smithville resident wanted to share some of her own recollections of her parents’ restaurant. In the early 1950s, she explained, my parents both educators at the time took a summer road trip to New England and stopped not once, but several times, to eat the delicious fare at Howard Johnson s. After returning home my mother said to my father, Dave, we can do that.