Churches

With the sun going down and the wind picking up, the temperature at the 45th Street light rail station dropped to more normal February levels. But The Rev. Rose Cohen Hassan of Trinity Church in Bayonne did not shiver or shirk from the duty she had come to perform, waiting for the next train of commuters to arrive.

“I wore layers,” she said, turning up the sleeve of her white religious garb to show the arm of the sweater she wore.

She and Andrew Balik, an assistant, had come here as members of Trinity Church to administer ashes to those commuters who wished to partake.

It would be quite hard for most to briefly sum up all the work that Father Joseph Pickard has done for St. John of the Divine Episcopal Church and the Hasbrouck Heights community.

Under his leadership, the congregation has grown and expanded, joining with St. Martin’s Church in Maywood. His leadership led to the creation of Care on the Corner, a non-profit organization built out of the church’s ministry which provides numerous services and resources to the people of Hasbrouck Heights and its surrounding community.

About 20 Episcopal priests fanned out throughout North Jersey and stationed themselves at commuter train stations, bus stops and coffee shops as part of Ash Wednesday services.

The movement — called Ashes to Go — started with Episcopal parishes in St. Louis, Mo., and spread to Chicago suburbs before becoming a nationwide event. This is the first year that priests from the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which includes parishes in Bergen and Passaic counties, participated.

Members of Fort Lee’s Church of the Good Shepherd tried something new Wednesday morning, taking part in what they were calling “Ashes to Go” in celebration of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

As Rev. Allison Moore of Good Shepherd recently blogged, the Right Rev. Mark Beckwith, Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, asked members of Episcopal churches in North Jersey “to go to train stations, bus stations, busy intersections or other places people gather to offer ashes and a prayer for Ash Wednesday.”

Dozens of people took time from the hustle and bustle of their morning commute today at the Frank R. Lautenberg train station in Secaucus to receive blessed ashes, marking the start of the Christian holy season of Lent.

Joe Cirone, a Somerset County resident who passes through Secaucus on his way to work in New York, stopped to receive the ashes, even though he said he plans to attend a church service later in the day.

Cirone was one of about 50 people who participated Ash Wednesday "Ashes to Go" program, started by an Episcopalian church pastor in St. Louis, Mo., in 2007.

Bishop Mark Beckwith, Canon Greg Jacobs and clergy and lay people in at least 20 towns in northern New Jersey distributed "Ashes to Go" at train stations, bus stops and other public locations. Here are some of the photos they shared with us.

Clergy and lay members of Episcopal churches across the state will hit the streets on Wednesday, Feb. 22, to distribute ashes to mark the start of the Christian holy season of Lent.

The Church of Our Saviour in Secaucus is one of 20 churches in Northern New Jersey participating in the “Ashes to Go” program on Ash Wednesday.

The Rev. Barbara Lewis of the Secaucus church will perform the service at the Frank R. Lautenberg Train Station, located at the intersection of County Road and County Avenue, from 7 to 8 a.m.

Episcopal congregations in at least 20 towns in northern New Jersey will take to the streets on Ash Wednesday, February 22, marking the beginning of the holy season of Lent by giving “Ashes to Go.”

Ash Wednesday initiates the Lenten season of reflection and penitence which precedes Easter. In the Episcopal tradition, clergy use ashes to mark the foreheads of the faithful with the sign of the cross, saying “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Was it her big hazel eyes? Was it his dapper moustache? When Pat Moulton and Jim Snodgrass are asked what attracted them to each other, they don't cite these or any other winning feature. No, for her, "It was his real interest in helping." For him, it was the thought that, "Here's someone working full-time and then giving so much" to Toni's Kitchen, the soup kitchen in Montclair, where the two met in 2006 and where they still avidly volunteer. This is their love story, and they're sticking to it.

Ed. note: Toni's Kitchen is a ministry of St. Luke's in Montclair.