The Catholics celebrate lent, the Methodists, the Lutherans but I have not seen any Presbyterian churches celebrating lent. Is there a reason for this? Is anyone here going to celebrate it?

I have been told it is a time for reflection on sin and preparation for the celebration of Easter that is 40 days away. The Methodist church we are familiar with are having a service on Wednesday night. They said in the service you write your sins down on a peace of paper, they burn it and then you draw a cross on your forehead with the ashes. Is this right, wrong? I know it is Catholic but does that automatically make it bad?

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Erick Bohndorf, Covenant Baptist Church, KS
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
The question for us today is, will we be like the majority of Israel and continue to look in fear at the giants in the land and urge our fellow Christians to be "realistic," or will we be like Joshua and Caleb and faithfully follow our king, trusting to fulfill every one of his promises completely?

I did last year when I was an Anglican. I thought ALL Christians did at that point n my life so I cheerfully wished all my PB Brethren a blessed Ash-Wed. It was not pretty! They were mean, I cried. Like this: I was so sad I never had Lent again. The End!

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~etexas~

uhm, no...don't celebrate it. Then again, we don't celebrate ANY holy days other than the Lord's Day as per the more conservative Presbyterian denominations and the WCF You can be assured that Andrew will probably be on with all the references for you

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JC
URCNA
PA, but homesick for SC

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

It's not commanded, which is what makes it bad. The illogic and superstition of it all makes it seven times worse. (I mean how big a sheet of paper do they give you?! If I were to write down the sins of my last year on a sheet of paper and set it ablaze, the whole church would burn down from the flames.) To "give up things for Lent" as though it were some purgitive act is to completely misunderstand and denigrate the worth Christ's Holy blood which was shed for you in order to release you from the penalty and bondage from sin.

Apart from this, the lenten season is an invention that wrongly focuses the Christian on one aspect of the Christian life during some portion of the year, to the exclusion of other parts of the year. The penitence and self-reflection that goes on (is supposed to go on) during the lenten season should be consistently practiced by Christians all year, just as the joy of the resurrection should be consistently practiced by Christians all year also. Confession and mortification of sin is a daily, nay, hourly duty of all of us. To lump repentance and a penitential spirit into one 40 day period is crazy. The superstition associated with Ash Wednesday as you describe could very well be described as blasphemous.

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Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://semperubi.rtrc.net

"Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light" (Christopher Love)


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The lenten season is also where Mardi Gras (the day before Ash Wed.) comes from. Do all the sinning you can before Ash Wednesday, etc.

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Chris
Member at Grace Community Baptist Church
Mandeville, LA

"Faith alone saves, but it is a faith that works." - S. Lewis Johnson

I always give up Lent for Lent.

This has historically been true of confessional Presbyterian churches in the Scottish tradition, as well as still some of them today. Just for clarification to anyone who might be reading this thread though, that is not universal in the Reformed tradition, today or historically. Particularly worth noting is that Continental Reformed churches have historically continued to give recognition to the "five evangelical feast days," which are Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost.

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Chris


A passion to know and reflect Christ by living and demonstrating the truth and richness of the historic Reformed faith

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Christopher Blum
Member of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Northern Kentucky (PCA) in Burlington, KY

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Intresting Chris. Thank you. I did not know that!

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~etexas~

Back in north Jersey (preponderance of RC population) when I worked at the Shop Rite this lady and her school-age kids were in the store. One of the kids was like, "Mom, I'm gonna go get a Hershey-bar." She's like, "You CAN'T. It's LENT!". Only self-control kept me from yelling out "Let me know when you get it back."

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~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
Substitute Teacher
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church

Whadya mean you don't celebrate Lent???? We started by celebrating Canival yesterday in Sunday School and I was chosen to play Jimmy the Shepherd in this years passion play.

Seriously though, I don't celebrate Lent. Why would I? I'm a Sagittarian.

Forgive me, I gave up honesty for Lent. (No, really!)

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Bob Vigneault (Bawb Vēēn-yo)
"We are God's children and He's the Father of all fathers and we need to obey him." Jean-Baptiste Vigneault (5)

The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog) MySpace (Music), MySpace (Personal)
Member of Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org

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toddpedlar;

Not that this is funny, but it is funny...because I was thinking the same thing...

I just went and picked my daughter up from school, and noticed a sign outside one of the churches advertising a "Fat Tuesday Party" and Ash Wed. Services for this week...I'm not even sure what the Denomination of the Church anymore, it USED to be Baptist (Independent) but not anymore...as the previous pastor sold the property to someone else when he left the church...(very ugly situation)

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Bobbi Clark
Covenant Member
Pinewood Pres. (PCA) Middleburg

When I kept Silent, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:3

Hmmmmmm........

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~etexas~

I attended a PCA church that did not celebrate Lent, but acknowledged it as part of the church calendar. (This was not consistent from year to year.) When the date was printed in the bulletin, next to the date was something like "3rd Sunday in lent". I know of two PCA churches in my presbytery that use different colored clothes on the communion table (purple for lent and holy week, red fro Christmas, white for Easter). This is obviously a remnant of some in the church having been part of Episcopal and Catholic churches.

I used to be quite into the church calendar, but like the rest of you, "I gave it up for lent"

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J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

No, I am a Protestant.

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Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)

Yes, we recognize lent and will have an Ash Wednesday service and a Good Friday service. We follow the church calendar and are encouraged to reflect during this season in order to love the Lord and our Neighbor all the more. As we should strive to do throughout the year.

No, I will not respond to questions why

That is all.

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Travis Graham | Member | Christ The King (PCA) | Houston, TX

"The world will bow,
and knees will be broken,
for those who don't know how"
- Woven Hand

I work with a guy who practices lent even though he doesn't attend church services anywhere. He's giving up beer (he's 19) and weed. I wonder if it counts to give up sins for lent? It just seems so ridiculous.

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Miller Ansell
Christ Covenant Prebyterian Church (OPC)
Amarillo, TX
Wayland Baptist, student, Amarillo, TX Major in Christian Studies

I am going to give up giving something up for Lent

Seriously, isn't giving something up work righteous? Where is the command to give something up in Scripture?

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Jeff Wyman
Seminarian
Little Farms Chapel OPC, Coopersville, MI
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI

"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence." 1 Peter 1:2-3 (ESV)

Weed! Sorry, just struck me as funny.

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~etexas~

I gave up a PCA church for Advent and Lent one time...and yes, there were other issues.

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JC
URCNA
PA, but homesick for SC

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

To be fair, Mardi Gras (especially in its current form) came from a misapplication/misunderstanding of the purpose of the observation of Lent. Whereas the popular understanding of Lent is that you are to give up something sinful in order to spend more time with the Lord, the correct historical understanding is that you are to abstain something good (such as food, marital relations, fermented beverage, etc) in order to get something better (ie: more concentrated time in prayer and fellowship with God).

The whole "get in all the sinnin' you can" adage is a travesty that's unfortunately been attached to Lent as a whole in many peoples' minds. It doesn't have to be that way.

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Rae W. | Elder @ Grace Central Presbyterian Church | Columbus, OH
Online presence: blog | twitter | facebook

Lent, if pushed by the Church, is an unbiblical, unwarranted, binding of a Christian's conscience to observe a day that has not been commanded in Scripture. Also, IMHO, if it is recognized as some special time in the Church it is a blatant violation of the Regulative Principle of Worship.

Just my , but I think we should be zealous for the Lord's Day and stop twiddling with the Popish stuff our Puritan Divines railed against.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Attending CCRPC, Member of TRBC
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