Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the church's season of Lent - the 40 days (46 days including Sundays) leading up to our celebration of Easter. During Lent, we focus on our faith, trying to align the path of our own lives with that of God. As one of the prayers we use during this season says, 'in these forty days you lead us through a desert of repentance that through a pilgrimage of prayer and discipline we may grow in grace and learn to be your people once again.'
At our services on Ash Wednesday, there will be a chance to receive the sign of the cross made in ash on our foreheads. Ash has long been a symbol of repentance - a desire to turn our lives towards what God wants for us.
We will be having two services in Cheam Parish on Ash Wednesday:
11.00am at St Dunstan's Church
(on Church Road in Cheam Village)
7.30pm at St Oswald's Church
(on Brock's Drive)