A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Cowden

Ash Wednesday 2026

Dear People of God in the Diocese of West Virginia,

Today’s Ash Wednesday liturgy invites us into this holy season of Lent with the admonition to mark these forty days with, among other things, self-examination and repentance. Lent is both personal and corporate. This season’s self-examination and repentance often begins deep within and then joins in the public, communal activity of confession and repentance as we become aware of the manifold ways our individual actions construct and perpetuate systems and structures larger than ourselves.

In our Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday, we are called to respond to the needs and suffering around us, to never be indifferent to injustice and cruelty, and to reject prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us (BCP p. 268).

Our prayers today take on a particular gravity in light of what we continue to see in our state and in our nation, from capricious immigration raids in our communities here in West Virginia to state-sanctioned violence in Minnesota and beyond. As Episcopal Christians, our baptismal commitment to the dignity of every human being compels us to speak.

We have watched this violence unfold on television and phone screens and in our neighborhoods. We are not only witnessing physical violence, but the violence and sins of racism, classism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and more.

This is not the way of Jesus, and it is the duty of all Christians to reject and renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God and the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God. We must reject these sins as they unfold around us, and we must reject these sins in ourselves when we discover the impulses toward all forms of violence and degradation. We must confess the ways we have been unlike Christ, so that we may grow in Christ’s likeness.

This is the purpose of these forty days: to reorder our lives so that, through Christ, we are ever responsive to the needs and sufferings of those around us and are never indifferent to injustice and cruelty.

This Lent, let our lives speak of Christ’s presence in the world, through our prayers, through our presence, and through our witness.

Your Pilgrim Companion in Lent,

Bishop Matthew