Anglicans begin Lent with pancake dinners
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Mar 05/01) - Across the North, Anglicans were serving up pancakes last week, to mark Shrove Tuesday, the beginning of Lent -- a 40-day period of reflection and prayer before Easter Sunday.
Pastor Haydn Schofield of the Hay River Anglican Church said the tradition dates back to the church's early days.
"You cleaned the house and removed all animal fats and things like that from the house so that you could start Lent and the period of abstinence."
Lent is traditionally a period of reflection and spiritual exercising and also a time where new church members are prepared for Baptism.
He said they have been holding the pancake dinners every Shrove Tuesday in the past 12 years he's been pastor in Hay River.
This year, he said the church served pancakes to nearly 100 people.
Bishop Larry Robertson at Inuvik's Anglican Church of the Ascension said this year's dinner was the best he's seen.
"This is about our largest crowd we've had," the Bishop said. "We served between 40 and 60 people."
"It's just a good social time," he said.
Bishop Roberston said that during Lent, his church will be holding additional Bible studies and a senior's dinner during Holy Week.
"It's a period when we prepare ourselves and look inwardly at our own lives, to see if there is anything we need to change," he said. "We do that in a variety of ways; through prayer and through helping others."
In addition to the pancake dinners, both the Inuvik and Hay River churches will be serving a free lunch each Thursday until Easter.
"It's just a soup and a sandwich, but it's a good meal for some of our street people and the less fortunate," Bishop Robertson said.
