Commuters marked with ‘Ashes to Go’
February 22, 2012 12:26PM
Cristina Angeles, of Oak Park, prays after she got Ash Wednesday rtes from Shawn Schreiner, Rector at Grace Episcopal Church, on Feb. 22, 2012, at the Harlem Avenue Green Line station in Oak Park. Schreiner was giving Ash Wednesday rites on the street as part of an "Ashes to Go" program she helped bring to Oak Park. Rob Hart~Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 29, 2012 4:07PM
The symbolic start of Lent came to the masses last Wednesday instead of the masses having to go to Mass.
Oak Park and River Forest pastors took to the streets on Ash Wednesday, marking crosses on the faithfuls’ foreheads with ashes.
“Ashes to Go” was performed during the 7 a.m. rush hour at many train stations — Oak Park Avenue Green and Blue Lines, Green Line and Metra Station at Harlem Avenue — and near Christ Church in River Forest. And ministers were out at noon at Marion and Lake streets in Oak Park.
“It was really special for me, very touching,” said Megan Opel of Oak Park as she boarded the EL after receiving rites from the Rev. Shawn Schreiner, minister at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park.
Schreiner brought the tradition to Oak Park, after it started in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago by the the Rev. Emily Mellott. Shreiner said the initiative is meant to reach people who can’t attend church services on this significant start of Lent.
This is Schreiner’s third year of “Ashes to Go.”
Other participating ministers were the Rev. Kathy Nolte from Good Shepherd Lutheran, River Forest; the Rev. Julie Ruth Harley from First United, Oak Park; the Rev. Parish Coffey from St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Oak Park; the Rev. Pete Campbell from Christ Church, River Forest; and the Rev. Kelly Faulstich from Grace Lutheran Church and School, River Forest. They were joined by members of their congregations.
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