Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. It gets its name from the practice of ‘ashing’: marking the forehead of each worshipper with the sign of the cross in ash, as a remembrance of our mortality, while the priest says to each person, ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’

The preacher at the Solemn Eucharist is the Dean. The choir will sing William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, and the anthem Miserere Mei, Deus (Have mercy on me, O God) which sets the opening words to psalm 51, the psalm of repentance traditionally sung on Ash Wednesday.