Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, which is a time of preparation for Easter.
In this service of the Eucharist or Holy Communion, there is also an opportunity to receive ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead: a powerful symbol of our weakness, mortality, and failures, and of God's powerful love, that redeems us and uses us.
The ashes are often prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations.

This service will join all the churches in our benefice at St. James’s, Cotes Heath, at 7.30pm.