Ash Wednesday 2026

Dutton Court Chapel Service

“Dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

These are the traditional words said when an ash cross is marked on the forehead for Ash Wednesday.

Similarly evocative words are found in the traditional Anglican funeral service,

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” as the coffin is placed into the earth.

Genesis 2 tells us that God made humans from the dust of the ground. The name of the first person, “Adam,” literally means “Dirt”.

Dirt and ashes are not considered especially valuable commodities in our world today. But when you think about it, dirt and ash are the source of fertility and growth.

After a bushfire or a controlled burn off, new growth is stimulated, and it’s not long before blackened ground becomes green and lush.

Many of the Aboriginal nations who have lived in this land so long encouraged this cycle of burning and replenishing. If bushfires didn’t sweep through at the right time, carefully controlled burns would be carried out to make sure the cycle of death and resurrection continued.

This really is an apt image for what Lent and Easter is about.

The Season of Lent goes for 40 days, echoing the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness before taking up his public ministry.

Traditionally, Christians have observed this 40 day season as a sombre time of penitence, a time where we take stock of our lives, when we give up habits and luxuries that don’t actually help us. Historically, and still today, the 3 key practices observed by many are fasting (giving something up), almsgiving (giving of time or money to charity), and prayer.

This experience of penitence and giving things up is something like those fires that look negative and perhaps harmful, but after things have been burned away, new shoots spring forth, and new growth is possible.

Hopefully that is what Lent will be like for all of us.

We take stock of our fragility—dust we are, and to dust we return.

We consider whether there are things we do that don’t help us spiritually, and we give those things up. This is fasting.

We consider what we could offer to others. Perhaps it’s as simple as companionship and a kind word for a fellow resident. Often time is the most precious thing we can give. This is almsgiving.

We consider what we can do to deepen our prayer life. I know I can always pray more. It’s so easy to forget about prayer. But even when we are alone, God is always sitting with us, waiting to hear our joys and our sorrows, the things we are grateful for and the things for which we seek God’s help.

So I pray that you have a good and holy Lent, and that as we metaphorically burn away the unhelpful things in our lives, we may be prepared for the beautiful celebration of the Resurrection at Easter in 40 days’ time.

Amen.