Come and join in the feast. APLC youth swing into action to serve up a great pancake supper. The pancakes start flipping at 6:30 p.m. and will be served until 7:45 p.m. At 7:00 we will briefly interrupt the meal to gather in the outdoor chapel for a moment of prayer closing the season of Epiphany. We’ll burn palms from last year’s Palm Sunday and prepare the ashes for the Ash Wednesday worship.

 Why Shrove Tuesday?  And why pancakes?

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent starts: the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It's a day of penitence, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins. The word “Shrove” comes from the ancient word "shrive," which means to confess. On Shrove Tuesday, in the Middle Ages, the faithful would confess their sins to the local priest so that they were forgiven before the season of Lent began. Historically, Lent was a 40-day period of fasting when the faithful were forbidden by the church to consume meat, butter, eggs or milk. Since any of those foods on hand would go bad by the time the fast ended on Easter Sunday, it became a custom to use up the foods that would not be eaten during lent with a feast on the “shriving night.” Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use all the eggs, sugar, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.

Come join us for this traditional beginning of Lent.