If you’re looking for a place to spiritually reflect on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, Gig Harbor Patch has you covered. We asked around and googled our community churches to find out where you can participate in local services and events. Here is what we found:
Gig Harbor United Methodist Church – 7400 Pioneer Way, 253-851-2625
is hosting a Shrove, or “Fat”, Tuesday pancake dinner tonight, March 8. The dinner acknowledges the tradition of feasting on foods that historically were forbidden during Lent, such as butter, eggs and milk. One way to use up these perishable foods would be make pancakes on the eve of Ash Wednesday. The church will be serving its pancakes from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. It will also hold a traditional Ash Wednesday service the following night at 7 p.m.
St. John’s Episcopal Church – 7701 Skansie Ave., 253-858-3777
is having two Ash Wednesday services, one at noon and the other at 7 p.m. They will include the traditional imposition of ashes, gathered from the burning of palm crosses from the prior year’s Palm Sunday services.
Peninsula Lutheran Church – 6509 38th Ave. NW, 253-851-3511
will also hold two traditional Ash Wednesday services. The first is at noon and the second at 6:30 p.m.
St. Nicholas Catholic Church — 3510 Rosedale St. NW, 253-851-8850
will hold traditional Ash Wednesday masses at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. After each mass, will hold a “Bury the Alleluia” ceremony. The word alleluia is not spoken or sung during Lent. The ceremony is a symbolic representation of that tradition.
Fox Island United Church of Christ – 726 Sixth Ave., 253-549-2420
Ernest Karlstrom will speak at the United Church of Christ’s Ash Wednesday event. The retired professor and congregation member will give an illustrated lecture on the lives and contributions of his parents, Reverend Otto and Alva Karlstrom, who founded the Lutheran Compass Missions in Seattle and Tacoma and such other charitable endeavors as the Lutheran Welfare Society and Good Samaritan Hospital. The lecture starts at 7 p.m. in the church sanctuary. Prior to that the UCC will hold a short Ash Wednesday service at 6 p.m. and a reservations-only dinner at 6:30 p.m.
