Ash Wednesday

Here is the scene just before the service at today's Ash Wednesday Service for St Anne's, St James, and St Mary's, at St Mary Magadelen, Bermondsey Street.

This service for the beginning of Lent was led by St Mary's rector, Charlie Moore, and included hymns, readings, the imposition of ashes, and Holy Communion.

In the Bible ashes are a sign of mourning or repentance.

Ashes in the shape of a cross are traditionally applied to the worshippers' foreheads on Ash Wednesday as a sign of mourning for sin and repentance.

As the ashes are applied these words are said by the minister: 'Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from your sin and be faithful to Christ.'

Those words recall the words in the funeral service 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' and as such they remind us of our mortality, as they call us to use Lent as a time for repentance and spiritual renewal.

St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey Street