Our parish, St Barnabas Ealing W5, does Ash Wednesday brilliantly: robed choir processing round the church intoning a mournful litany mentioning all the human weaknesses that we normally don't want to talk about; penetential hymns (including one by that notorious Oxford misery-guts Edward Pusey); plus a less than comfortable sermon.
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is observed as a Holy Day of Obligation. In other words, for centuries, the faithful have been expected to show up for worship, no excuses. The climax is kneeling at communion rail to receive the sign of the Cross in charcoal on the forehead while the priest intones, "Remember you are dust and to dust you will return."
It doesn't really suit the self-perceptions of English people. One of their most virulent spiritual diseases of these islands is epitomised in the one and only serious heresy produced here - Pelagianism. It could be summed up as "I'm all right Jack", or in words of a little old lady who once told me, "When I stand before God I'll just show him my hands." The verse English people least like is Isaiah 64.6, "all our righeous acts are like filthy rags."
Anyway, I was amused to read how a news reporter blabbed that the US Vice President appeared to be sporting a bruise on his forehead while speaking on national tv. It was, of course, his Ash Wedneday cross, and the reporter had to make an abject recantation. Click here to enjoy the spectacle YouTube.
