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Ashes to Go, a go at Kinnelon church

By: 
Deborah Walsh / The Record

[The Record] One local church has enacted a unique way to make the distribution of ashes more accessible to the public on Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of the Lenten season for western Christians. St. David’s Episcopal Church has established an "Ashes to Go" initiative.

The Rev. David DeSmith, pastor at St. David’s, said the Rt. Rev. Mark M. Beckwith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, invited Episcopal churches in the diocese, which comprises more than 100 congregations in Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Sussex, Essex, Warren, Hudson and Union counties, to institute an "Ashes to Go" outreach program. Although some Episcopal churches in the United States have been participating in the program for as long as five years, this is the third year that St. David’s has been taking ashes to the street.

According to DeSmith, St. David’s had four ash distribution teams that went early Wednesday morning. Teams at St. David’s, at the Meadtown Shopping Center bus stop near Route 23, and off Route 23 in Newfoundland began administering ashes at approximately 6:15 a.m., and many of the recipients were commuters on their way to work. A fourth team headed down to Main Street in Butler around 8 a.m. where many workers took advantage of the offering of ashes, he said.

Although the aim is to make the receipt of ashes convenient, DeSmith said his congregation’s goal is to go out to meet people where they are, instead of waiting for them to show up at church. In a sense, it is bringing the church to the people.