HKSKH churches hold Ash Wednesday services online

Publish Date: 02-Mar-2021

The season of Lent starts amid the COVID-19 pandemic this year. Under restrictions on the social gathering, public services were cancelled, however, many Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui churches held Ash Wednesday services that symbolizes repentance on the internet. The services also reminded the faithful that “they are dust, and to dust, they shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.”

The season of Lent this year starts on 17 February and ends on 3 April (Holy Saturday), spanning over forty days, (excluding all Sundays during Lent). These forty days symbolizes not only the forty-day flood experienced by Noah and his family in the Old Testament and the forty years that Israelites spent in the wilderness in their exodus from Egypt, but most importantly, it is a period where believers should imitate Christ who fasted for forty days in the wilderness to resist the temptations of the devil. Following the tradition, the church invites the faithful to strengthen their spirits so that they can be closer to God by restraining themselves from pleasurable things by taking up fasting, praying, repenting, and doing charitable work such as making donations to the needy. The Lenten season is also the period where the faithful should prepare themselves to enter the promised land with God, share in his eternal life, and live more abundant lives.