st. paul episcopal church schedules lenten services

     St. Paul Episcopal Church of Seymour will hold a special Ash Wednesday service at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17 with imposition of ashes followed by the Holy Communion to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent.
     The Rev. A. Henry Swann, Episcopal priest, will celebrate.   Church members start here because they must know their need for mercy and grace before they can receive God’s freely given gift of salvation.  
     The church does a strange thing on Ash Wednesday. For those who desire it, ashes will be placed on their foreheads as followers say, "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."
     Ash Wednesday reminds followers that they are mortal, and in so doing confronts them with a simple question: We have only one life in this world. How do we want to spend it?  
     The Sundays from Feb. 21 through March 21 are the five Sundays in Lent and members celebrate that season at their regular 10:30 Sunday worship services.  
     Lent is about mortality and transformation, dying to an old identity—the identity conferred by culture, by tradition, by parents, perhaps—and being born into a new identity—an identity centered in the Spirit of God.  
     All are welcome to attend these services at the church, which is located at 1028 Boyd’s Creek Hwy.  Contact Pete Walburg at (865) 573-7253, or see www.StPaulEpiscopalChurch.org for more information.