Ashes to Go at East Carolina University

I have been taking Ashes to Go since 2018, and this year on Ash Wednesday representatives of the Well Campus Ministries imposed ashes on around 70 of the roughly 170 people we interacted with during Ashes to Go and there were a few firsts for me!

1. I got to put ashes on a baby, and a baby that I love. It’s a harrowing experience to muster up all the love you have in your heart and tell a baby they are going to die some day. “You are of dust, and you shall return to dust” sounds different when it’s directed to a baby. I was thinking “you came from Love, and you go back to Love.”
2. I got to chat with some Muslims about our season of fasting in Lent and which ways it is similar and different from Ramadan. The sister who was talking to me pointed at the bowl of Valentines candy and I told her that I don’t personally fast from any food during Lent, but even if I did, we would still be handing the candy out because it was our way of showing the people at ECU that we love them and that God loves them, regardless of their beliefs or practices.
3. We imposed ashes on a sister who is Jewish. I shared in depth beforehand about the Christian origin of the practice of Lent and of Ash Wednesday, but reassured her that it is an open practice, and that she was welcome to receive ashes and ponder her mortality with us. That the verse I recite each time comes from the third chapter of Genesis, a book we both share.
4. We had a large group of visibly LGBTQ+ folks of multiple races come up and get candy and heart-shaped sunglasses from us, and I explained that we were representing the campus ministry and that we were also imposing ashes, but that we don’t expect people to sign up for anything or pray with us in order to get love from us. We also had lots of leftover pins and stickers from Pride, with designs from Illustrated Ministries. They were so excited about the rainbows, and about the stickers of Jesus, who is depicted as a Black man with locced hair serving the elements of the Eucharist. It doesn’t matter that we didn’t get contact info, that they didn’t sign up for our altar guild or vestry, or give money to the church. It matters that they had a moment where Church people didn’t judge them, that they saw themselves in our group and especially in our depiction of Jesus. They felt loved. One young person pointed at Jesus and said “Y’all really ate with that.” And we did eat, and left no crumbs.

- Juniper LaNunziata, Director of Christian Formation, St. Paul's, Greenville