A RAYMOND Terrace priest gave residents the opportunity to observe the first day of Lent last Wednesday, performing the imposition of ashes on willing participants throughout the town's centre.
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Father Chris Yates, from St John's Anglican Church, beat the pavement on March 5, walking up and down William Street and into businesses offering to bless residents with a cross made from ash on their foreheads.
"It is a blessing done by the church for the last 1500 years," Father Yates said.
"But instead of sitting in the church waiting for them [residents] to come to me, I thought 'I'll go to them'."
The English-born priest said offering to bless people for Ash Wednesday in the street was common in the United Kingdom.
The blessing is done by using ash from burned down palm crosses from the year before.
The practice drew a few questioning glances as Father Yates, dressed in full priest robes, stood outside MarketPlace last Wednesday with a small pot of ash, and a cross on his forehead.
He said while some knew what he was offering, he had to explain to many others what Ash Wednesday was and why it was important.
"Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent," Father Yates said.
"It is the season of penance when we contemplate things from the last year - what went well and what didn't go so well," he said.
