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FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
From Glory to Ashes: Entering Lent Together
Every year the Church makes a move that feels abrupt if we are not paying attention.
On the last Sunday of the Epiphany Season, we will stand on the mountain of Transfiguration, wrapped in light, hearing again that beloved voice: “This is my Son… listen to him.”
A few days later, we will find ourselves with ashes on our foreheads, hearing words about dust and returning.
This is not a spiritual whiplash. It is a handoff.
Transfiguration does not send us away from the light—it teaches us how to carry it. Ash Wednesday does not erase glory—it asks what we will do with it once we come back down the mountain and into the rich soil of the valley of ordinary life.
As we enter Lent this year, we are continuing our shared journey of Being Home—not as a destination we reach, but as a way we learn to inhabit our lives more truthfully. Lent is not about self-improvement or spiritual toughness. It is about honesty. It is about noticing where we are living disconnected, distracted, or defensive—and gently returning to what is real.
The ashes we receive are not a mark of failure. They are a sign of belonging. They remind us that God meets us not after we have figured everything out, but right where we are: fragile, finite, loved.
Over the weeks of Lent, we will practice listening more deeply—to Scripture, to prayer, to one another, and to the places in our own lives that long for healing. We will resist the urge to rush toward Easter and instead trust that God is already always at work, slowly, in unnoticed places.
This season is not about arriving somewhere else. It is about coming home—together.
We invite you to walk the Lenten journey with us, beginning on Ash Wednesday, as we continue to learn how to live truthfully, watch gently, and listen attentively in the presence of God.

Upcoming Services & Events
Wednesday, February 18 – Ash Wednesday Service 6:30 p.m.
Ash Wednesday opens Lent by inviting us into a posture of truthfulness. We come not to perform sorrow or to prove devotion, but to acknowledge who we are before God—finite, vulnerable, and deeply loved. The ashes we receive echo an ancient wisdom of the Church: humility is not humiliation, and repentance is not despair, but the beginning of freedom.
For generations, Christians have marked this day with a simple, embodied prayer—allowing the sign of ashes to name both our limits and our belonging. In the Episcopal tradition, we receive this sign not as a sentence, but as a promise: that God meets us honestly, exactly where we are, and continues the work of mercy and renewal in us.
Lent begins here—not in fear or self-reproach, but in hope rooted in grace. We start this season trusting that the God who knows our dust is also the God who breathes life, again and again, into what seems worn or unfinished.

Sunday, February 22 – First Sunday of Lent
The First Sunday of Lent begins not with instruction, but with accompaniment. The Church steps into the wilderness with Jesus—not to watch from a distance, but to share the slow, vulnerable work of learning where trust is formed. This is a place of hunger and quiet, of prayer and resistance, where clarity is not rushed and dependence on God becomes real.
Lent opens here as a journey rather than a demand. We follow Christ not because we are strong enough, but because he has already gone ahead of us—meeting temptation with truth, fear with faithfulness, and isolation with trust in God’s sustaining presence.
This first Sunday reminds us that Lent is not about mastering spiritual disciplines, but about staying with Jesus long enough to discover what truly nourishes us, and who we are becoming as we walk this road together.

FAITH IN ACTION
Help support the Clinton Christian Community Center (4C’s) and Mississippi College Student Food Bank with non-perishable food items each Sunday. Baskets are marked in the Narthex.

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS 10 Marty Singletary, 15 John Lanford, 21 Barry Moore, 22 Stephen Giddens
ANNIVERSARIES 4 Austin & Emmanuela Onyia

FINANCIAL STATUS December: Income/$14,737.98 – Expenses/$15,323.27
LENTEN TRIVIA
1. Why does Lent last 40 days?
A. Because it takes 40 days to break a habit
B. Because biblical authors liked round numbers
C. Because the number 40 appears repeatedly as a time of testing, preparation, and transformation in Scripture
D. Because early Christians agreed it felt right

2. What is the original purpose of fasting or “giving something up” during Lent?
A. To prove religious discipline to others
B. To suffer just enough to appreciate Easter chocolate
C. To create space for prayer, self-examination, and dependence on God
D. To test willpower in socially impressive ways

3. Historically, how did early Christians observe Lenten fasting?
A. By skipping one meal a day
B. By giving up their favorite food
C. By fasting strictly until evening
D. By eating fish and calling it a loophole

4. What is the most commonly “given up” item in modern Lent?
A. Social media
B. Chocolate
C. Alcohol
D. The plan to give something up

Correct Answer: C The number 40 appears throughout the Bible as a period of spiritual preparation: the flood rains, Israel’s wilderness journey, Moses on Sinai, Elijah’s journey, and Jesus’ fasting in the desert. Lent follows this pattern as a season of reflection and renewal before Easter.
Correct Answer: C Traditionally, fasting was meant to refocus attention away from comfort and toward prayer, generosity, and spiritual growth—not as punishment, but as practice.
Correct Answer: C In the early Church, fasting often meant eating very little—or nothing—until sundown, especially during the first days of Lent. Compared to these practices, modern Lenten fasts are best described as aspirational.
Correct Answer: D