Proclaiming “the need for progressive Christian witness has never been more urgent,” a New York-based LGBTQ advocacy group with roots in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has launched “Glitter+Ash”. Parity characterizes glitter ash as a way for churches observing Ash Wednesday to incorporate pro-LGBTQ advocacy into the beginning of the 40-day Lenten season.
Formerly known as Presbyterian Welcome, Parity aims to “support emerging LGBTQ pastors (the forerunners of historical policy change) as they live into their callings” and to “empower LGBTQ and allied young people to integrate their spiritual, gender and sexual identities.”
The group explains that it seeks to “create a world where gender or sexual identity are not barriers to living the whole, full lives that we are called to by God.”
While the Christian church has historically understood the imposition of ashes as a sign of penance, Parity sees it as an opportunity for advocacy.
“We will be seen,” the Glitter Ash web site announces. “Glitter is like love. It’s irresistible and irrepressible.”
Parity offers a web site for Glitter Ash, planning to list participating churches, an explanation of the newly-updated practice and instructions on how to impose ashes, along with a handout to distribute to those who receive Glitter+Ash on Ash Wednesday. The site also promises suggestions for liturgy and prayers, soliciting input from those authoring their own liturgy.
“Offering glitter ashes will present an opportunity to breathe fresh life into your liturgy, recapture the surprise in the Christian message, and draw new people into your worship,” Parity promises.
Repentance from sin is not mentioned, but participants can order ashes mixed with glitter for a suggested donation of $10.
“Ashes are a statement that death and suffering are real,” the site explains. “Glitter is a sign of our hope, which does not despair. Glitter signals our promise to repent, to show up, to witness, to work. Glitter never gives up — and neither do we.”
The group urges participants to get the ashes early, wear them all day, and make a short video to distribute on social media about glitter ash using the hashtag #GlitterAshWednesday.
Full story from Virtue Online.
All the more reason for Catholics to get ashes on Ash Wednesday! We must not allow this wonderful tradition to be hijacked by homosexual activists.
“While the Christian church has historically understood the imposition of ashes as a sign of penance”.
That may be the Presbyterian and other Protestant Church denomination viewpoint; but that is not what I learned as a cradle Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic teaching on Ash Wednesday can be summed up in one simple statement as the Roman Catholic Priest blesses our foreheads with blessed ashes:
Remember man that you were dust and to dust you will return. It is all meant to humble us. Realize where our bodies came from, and what they will become except for a number of Saints bodies that are incorruptible all by the greater honor and glory of God. It shows our smallness and shortness in existence in our early lives, and that it is…
In the Catholic Church, the imposition of ashes serve as a reminder of mortality and the passing of this world and also as a sign of penance. Both of these come from Holy Scripture.
Dear Doug:
Matthew 11:21
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have REPENTED (do penance) long ago in sackcloth and ASHES.
Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat
“Those whom God wishes to destroy he first drives mad.”
Evil cannot remain segregated within a part of the human soul. It spreads throughout and corrupts everything: the intellect, often the body, and in this case common sense. They are self-defeating and self-accusatory in their words and actions. Anyone living in the state of grace can see how wicked and perverted are their ideas.
LOL
The sodomists have nothing else better to do than stay up all night thinking of new ways to desecrate what is holy. There will be plenty of time in hell to continue their hobbies.
Here is your “progressive Christian witness.” Go to confession, stop sodomizing, change your lives, embrace the Catholic church and God’s true word and find salvation.
The mental disorder manifests itself in yet another narcissistic and irreverent way. They always make everything about themselves and their disorder, and they always insist that explicit affirmation of their disorder be included in things that have nothing to do with them: parades, Mass, school curricula, TV shows, movies, marriage, business, and now Ash Wednesday. Their tentacles are reaching into more and more aspects of life, and they will not rest until everyone and everything are compelled always and everywhere to celebrate their disorderedness.
“Sawyer”: This is really good.
Sounds like a bizarre way to make money, to me. The invitation to turn from our sins and believe the Good News isn’t a call to celebrate own glittery selves, but to celebrate the one who calls us.
YFC, we are in agreement on this. Mass is about God and what he did for us and not about our celebrating our temptations or sins.
No matter what name the Not Normals wish to call themselves…they are just Sodomites!
I’ve always found Ash Wednesday to be incredibly impactful on my life, so I’m not a fan of this kind of innovation that obliterates the meaning of the ritual. But I do think the Church might consider a slight shift in the liturgical celebration which, after all, is one of the “looser” observances in that it is a sacramental and therefore open to lots of different practices. If I were a pastor, I would at least consider giving ashes from the rear of the Church, imposing them saying “Turn and receive the Gospel”, and have them literally turn around face the altar/crucifex/Book of the Gospels/Cross, etc. I might have them actually receive a book of Gospels. Or at least venerate it. Just a thought.
”
YFC,
I still remember the first time on Ash Wednesday that I heard the words, “From ashes you have come and to ashes you shall return.”
I wasn’t prepared to hear those words. And when I did, that visceral truth struck me as like a sword. I’ve never forgotten that memory.
Yup. There is something quite visceral about it, I agree with you. For me, it was when I was a [then] protestant in a catholic school, and the nuns reached out to me and told me I could partake in the ritual.
Sometimes it seems like I have been banned from this site, but since my previous comment made it through, it is starting to look like I haven’t been banned after all.
Repent and convert of your grave immoral sin which cries out to heaven for judgement! The time of judgement is fast approaching. Repent and convert!
Ski Ven,
I’d personally recommend against using the word “sodomite.” The term is overly divisive and thwarts attempts at evangelization. Also, there are homosexuals who are of the gay lifestyle but who are making honest attempts to overcome the problem. It wouldn’t be right to characterize them in that way.
I did not use the word sodomite, but I can start using it. It is not like they are worried about being divisive whenever they make fun of nuns, say that Jesus is a homosexual, or issue a government decree that condemns the teachings of the Catholic Church. You can not have peace when one side is attacking the other side. There is only so much that people can take before they start fighting back against aggressors. Unjust aggressors bring retaliation upon themselves.
Ski Ven,
FYI, when I discouraged use of that term, I was also referring to any variants.
I make no excuses for gay activists of the most vile sort. Their behavior condemns them. But the gay people who might view this site are not they.
If you chase people away from the Church and eternal salvation because of your language, do you think God will hold you accountable for this?
Instead of “glitter ashes,” they should call their stuff “fairy dust.”
Steve Seitz, you are not in charge of what words I use. I will use the word SODOMITE whenever I feel like it. I will not allow you to make me use words that have been designed by our enemies to paint us into a corner. The words they would have us use project the image that they are harmless people who are innocent victims of hate groups. Militant sinners are not innocent. They attack whatever is holy. That is what they do. To use sanitized language to make them look like angels is dishonest. So, whenever I am talking about sodomitical extremists I will use words like sodomite despite your wishes. If I am talking about those who seek to obey God, I will refer to them as same sex attracted. YOU are NOT my boss.
Ski Ven,
I’m not a proponent of sanitized language, but I’m not a proponent of needlessly offensive language either.
But it’s become apparent that the issue here isn’t about Christianity and gay behavior: It’s about maturity. You postings have revealed your age.
Wow, Ski Ven. You are so ready and searching for battle that you’ve found it in everything and everyone. No one was trying to be your boss, no one is trying to force you into anything; merely suggesting that the words you choose to convey your opinion are needlessly demoralizing and they drive away an increasingly confused and misguided youth from God’s house, a place that could very well change their minds and bring them to God if not for the battle-ready and foul mouthed fist shakers shouting at them from the doors. I agree that homosexuality is sin, and the new way of mixing the sin of pride and the sin of homosexuality is ungodly; but is it not also a sin to judge so harshly? Jesus himself spoke against sinners judging sinners for…
“Memento, homo … quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris” (cf. Gn 3:19). “Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return.” — https://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=32254
So now it’s “Memento, ‘ homo,’ ” you are glitter and to glitter you will return ? What’s Latin for “glitter” ?
So tell me then, how old am I, Mr. More Mature Than Thou Ad Hominem? For someone who is not a proponent of sanitized language, you sure do use it a lot. BTW: I have said many things on this website and this is the first place where I used the word SODOMITE. The image that you are projecting of me is incorrect. Someone needs lessons on rash judgement and slander and it ain’t me, Mr More Mature Than Thou.
Well, if you ask. Based on your behavior, I’d say you’re about 15. But your vocabulary and understanding of concepts could adjust that number upward: maybe 18.
Steve Seitz posits as a basis for his criticism of me, that it is wrong to be needlessly offensive. However, the deportment of Steve Seitz indicates that he sees nothing wrong with being needlessly offensive. Therefore, his criticism of me is false criticism. I am free to ignore false criticism. The LGBT alphabet soup crowd coined words that are fig leaves that conceal the ugly nature of sodomy and make it look happy. I will not use those words. Words like that conceal an ugly truth. The unwillingness to confront an ugly truth is a sign of immaturity. I will not continue to go back and forth with Steve Seitz because such exchanges tend to sink to lower levels. I will take the high road. Have a Holy Lent.
Is it not also a sin to judge so harshly? Jesus himself spoke against sinners judging sinners for sinning: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. We, as God’s children, should be welcoming his lost and unguided children, our brethren, to the House of God, not shouting obscenely and generalizing. Not all homosexuals are militant antichrists; in my experience it’s the ones who aren’t welcomed into God’s House who seek spiritual comfort elsewhere and wind up trapped in Satan’s web of lies. A lamb shunned from it’s herd is a lamb vulnerable to the wolves, wandering alone and desperate for a friend. Would it not be more prudent, more Christ-like, to admit that the method by which you choose to express His holy truth is a bit…