Bishops of 3 Faiths Hold Unique Ash Wednesday Service

Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran bishops of Los Angeles ushered in the Christian penitential season of Lent in an unprecedented ecumenical Ash Wednesday service.

Standing before about 900 students at USC, the three clergymen--Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Episcopal Bishop Frederick H. Borsch and Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Paul W. Egertson--drew the sign of the cross on each other’s foreheads with ashes to mark the beginning of Lent.

“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel,” the clergymen, dressed in purple vestments, said to each other before placing ashes on the students.

The service was believed by participants to be the first time since the 16th century Protestant Reformation that bishops of the three churches had joined each other in an Ash Wednesday service. A Vatican spokesman said Wednesday that he was unaware of any precedent. In 1993, leaders of the three churches in Los Angeles recognized the validity of each other’s baptism rites. They participated in a joint baptismal service in 1994.

“It’s one more step,” Mahony, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, said after Wednesday’s service. “The more we seek common ground and do things together and encourage our parishes to do things together, all those are steps forward toward unity that we pray for.”

Still, participants noted that while Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans are free to receive Communion in each other’s churches, they generally may not receive Communion in a Roman Catholic church except under limited circumstances. To freely share the sacrament, Catholic leaders have said, would be to pretend full unity that does not yet exist.

“We cannot on this day yet share bread and wine together,” Borsch said in a brief homily. “But we are sharing ashes with one another--and rightly so as we stand before God.”

Egertson, bishop of the Southern California West Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, also alluded to continuing divisions.

“While Christians themselves continue to be enslaved by evil divisions within our own ranks, we three [bishops] are here as ambassadors to bear witness to God’s work of reconciliation in the world.”

Since the time of Jesus’ apostles, Christians have observed a period of preparation and fasting before Easter. During this season, known as Lent, they are encouraged to pray, reflect, fast and seek forgiveness for their sins.

Traditionally, the ashes imposed on the foreheads of believers come from burning the dried palm branches used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday services, which commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem before his arrest, trial and crucifixion.