No offense, Little Darlin', but as a gay man who has lived through the worst years of the AIDS crisis, I do not need reminding that I am ephemeral, or anyone else, either.
No, that's not my point. My point is that having been raised Lutheran in a time when neither Lutherans nor ordinary Episcopalians practised the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, I think it's a silly innovation. Even some Lutherans do it, now. I can see value in using the rite as a testimony of one's Christian profession, and that's about the only justification I can see for doing it. Reminder of sinfulness? The churches spend 46 weeks out of the year trying to make us feel good about ourselves and God, playing down mankind's sinfulness and need of repentence, and then all of a sudden for six weeks we're sinners who need to repent?
Oh, and the Gospel lesson that is traditionally read in the Episcopal Church on Ash Wednesday is from the sixth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus is depicted telling his followers that when they fast (like in Lent?), they are not supposed to make themselves look like they are fasting, even, specifically, they are supposed to wash their faces--and then we dutifully troop up to the foot of the chancel steps to get dirt smeared on our foreheads? It's just silly.
As I said, even some Lutherans do it nowadays. We didn't when I was growing up. And since the 1800s there have been some Anglicans and Episcopalians who really want to be Roman Catholic, they just don't want to deal with the Pope. I'm glad to hear that the Protestants in the Fatherland keep to the good old Protestant ways.
Don't shoot the messenger (nah, I know you don't
). It's not
my rite. I only recapitulate what I've learned.
BTW, I don't know anyone (under the age of, say 60) who practises it. But then, I don't know anyone (again, in my age group or younger) who is a regular churchgoer, be it Protestants or RCs.