Ashes to go — with a little extra sparkle

Clergy encouraged to show support for LGBT people by offering added glitter

Smearing her thumb across sixyear-old Genevieve Dalton’s forehead, the Rev. Robin Anderson repeated the solemn words of Ash Wednesday: “From dust you came. To dust you shall return.”

Then Genevieve whirled away from the pastor, her forehead twinkling. “I really like glitter,” she proclaimed.

Genevieve, like thousands of other Christians nationwide, got her ashes on this Ash Wednesday with a side of sparkles. The Glitter Ash project, created by New York non-profit Parity, encouraged clergy to mix glitter into the ashes this year, to represent the inclusion of LGBT people in Christian life.

“People are responding with such joy that they can show their faith and show that they are LGBT,” said the Rev. Marian Edmonds-Allen, executive director of Parity.

They encouraged heterosexual supporters of LGBT inclusion to wear the glitter ashes, too.

Christians of numerous denominations typically mark Ash Wednesday — the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of repentance leading up to the celebration of Easter — by having a minister mark a cross on their foreheads with ash, a remembrance of mortality. Faithful had the option of no glitter, but over the course of the morning commuter rush, more than a dozen opted for the glitter ash.

When Parity came up with the idea of glitter ashes, some Christians, even liberal ones, objected to the concept, saying that joyful glitter doesn’t belong on Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance. Others said that asking people to choose between glitter ash and regular ash would only deepen the bitter divi- sion in many Protestant churches over homosexuality.

Edmonds-Allen said that she consulted several theologians — including some from more conservative evangelical backgrounds — to ask if mixing glitter into the ashes would be sacrilegious. She said she gained their approval, then came up with a formula: blessed ashes from a church supply store, makeup-quality polyester purple glitter, and a little bit of olive oil to stick it all together.

Orders came in from churches nationwide — so many orders that Parity sold out of all 150 packages it made of $10 glitter ash, enough to smear the foreheads of 15,000 people. Then Edmonds-Allen started encouraging churches to just mix their own glitter ash.

Clergy who requested glitter ash included Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites and many more. Many were located in more conservative parts of the country and many more small towns across the Midwest and the South made the list, as did churches in the United Kingdom and Canada.

In Alexandria, Anderson said the project appealed to her church as soon as they heard about it.

“With the executive order repealing the bathroom protections for transgender Americans, there might be some extra fear now. ... It might be a little more needed now,” she said.