{"id":13169,"date":"2026-02-07T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/?p=13169"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:38:05","slug":"ash-wednesday-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/ash-wednesday-2026","title":{"rendered":"Ash Wednesday 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A Circuit<\/abbr> Ecumenical Service<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

February 18 at 7pm<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First Congregational Church (UCC)
\n<\/strong><\/span>also known as the Big Red Church<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2131 N. Van Ness Blvd,
\nFresno CA 93704<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

ASH WEDNESDAY AT MEMORIAL<\/abbr><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday, February 18 at 1 pm<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Memorial<\/abbr> UMC<\/abbr> will hold a simple 30 minute service for the imposition of ashes by <\/span>Pastor Falamao Samate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Through the\u00a0service of ashes<\/a>\u00a0on the first day of Lent, we come before God recognizing our humanity, repenting of our sin, and remembering\u00a0who we are and who we can be<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ash Wednesday is the first day of the Christian season called Lent. Lent originated in the 4th century, and was initially a time of preparation for those being baptized at Easter.\u00a0The ashes symbolize our humility before God, and our recognition that we are mortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a time when we reflect on what we need to change in our lives in order to live responsibly and lovingly as a member of the created world. We look more deeply at the observance of Lent over the next 40 days, take a fearless moral inventory of our lives, and look for ways to find more love, peace, and fulfillment in our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Last updated: February 20, 2026 at 11:38 am<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Circuit<\/abbr> Ecumenical Service February 18 at 7pm First Congregational Church (UCC) also known as the Big Red Church 2131 N. Van Ness Blvd, Fresno CA 93704 ASH WEDNESDAY AT MEMORIAL<\/abbr> Wednesday, February 18 at 1 pm Memorial<\/abbr> UMC<\/abbr> will hold a simple 30 minute service for the imposition of ashes by Pastor Falamao Samate. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,44,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-what-happened-event-over","8":"category-announcements","9":"category-special-services","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Ash-Wednesday-cross.gif?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 22:02:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mem-umc.org\/mem-umc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}