ROANOKE, Va. – A group of Roanoke pastors started the 40 days of Lent by bringing ashes out to the people on Ash Wednesday.
Six churches in the Grandin Village area administered “ashes-to-go” across the street from the Grandin Theatre on Wednesday afternoon. The group has done this each Ash Wednesday for the past four years.
It is a known tradition for pastors to mark people with ashes to begin the Easter season, but the practice normally takes place within a church.
Christ Lutheran Church Pastor Dave Skole said the group took its ashes outside to bring people closer to their faith.
“This is a very accessible way of encountering God, and that’s the point of it,” Skole said. “God is not in these churches, the power of God is in the people of God.”