Speaking Of Lent In 2026

What is Lent really about? 

In this episode of Speaking of Faith, Bishop DeDe and Adam  reflect on the invitation of Lent and the deep symbolism of Ash Wednesday. Together, they explore repentance not as shame or self-punishment, but as a turning—an intentional return to God marked by honesty, humility, and hope.

The ashes placed on our foreheads are not just a ritual gesture. They are a reminder of our mortality, our fragility, and our need to live with intention. Yet they are also a sign of renewal—a declaration that no matter where we’ve been, God’s love remains present, steady, and ready to help us begin again.

This conversation challenges listeners to examine the authenticity of their faith practices. Are we going through the motions, or are we allowing God to truly shape us? Lent becomes more than a season of giving something up—it becomes an opportunity to grow deeper in compassion, justice, and love of neighbor.

Throughout the episode, Bishop DeDe reminds us that the Church’s mission is not only personal transformation but also communal responsibility: advocating for justice, caring for our neighbors, and engaging in faith conversations that invite rather than condemn.

Lent is not only about penitence. It is about hope—the kind of hope that believes change is possible and that grace meets us exactly where we are.

What You'll Take Away From This Episode:

• Lent invites reflection and intentional living
• Repentance means turning back to God with honesty and humility
• Ashes symbolize both mortality and renewal
• Authentic faith practices lead to genuine spiritual growth
• Hope is central to Lent—not just penitence
• The Church is called to advocate for justice and care for neighbors
• Conversations about faith should be inviting, not condemning
• God’s love is constant, always offering a fresh start
• Community strengthens and sustains our spiritual journeys
• Engaging in honest dialogue deepens understanding and faith

AI Disclosure: To support our staff in their limited time,  many of our episode summaries are first generated by AI and then edited by the Communications Director to accurately reflect and preview our podcast episodes.

Transcript

Bishop DeDe (00:01.588)
Hey friends, welcome to Speaking of Faith, how we talk about our faith, how we articulate what we believe. Welcome to the conversation. My name is DeDe Duncan-Probe. I am the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. That's Utica to Elmira, Canada to Pennsylvania, and all the beautiful people and places in between. I reverse that from what I normally say. And I'm joined by Adam Eichelberger. He is our Director of Communications in the Diocese.

And we're here today, we're going to be speaking about our faith in terms of what's coming up, our season of Ash Wednesday in Lent, our season of Lent, the Ash Wednesday celebration next week. We're going to be talking about what does it mean? Why do we do this in the church? And how do we talk about it? What does it have to do with our day to day lives and how we articulate our faith? And so I want to welcome you to the conversation wherever.

You may be on your journey, your thoughts about this. I welcome your comments and your feedback. Last week, I was really grateful to be joined by Ead Kumri to talk about the pilgrimage to the Middle East, to Jerusalem. And that was a great conversation. And so it really does inform what we're talking about when we talk about Lent and Ash Wednesday. In the church, Ash Wednesday is a turning point. It's a moment where we stop.

and we reflect on with soberness of mind on how we live. Is our faith reflected in what we do and how we say and live our lives? And you may be familiar with the idea. Some people every year give up chocolate or sweets in the season of Lent. An act of piety is normal. And so often people have their thing that they do during Lent. You'll see people on Facebook.

or Instagram saying I'm not gonna Instagram or Facebook during Lent and take a fast because in Lent, fasting, praying and repentance are the key aspects of it as we prepare for the passion and resurrection of Jesus. It's a habit in the church, it's done every year. And so first of all, when we're speaking about our faith, I think it's helpful to get clear on what do we mean about certain terms. On this podcast, I've talked a lot about

Bishop DeDe (02:23.336)
repentance and what repentance actually means. There have been many seasons in the church where repentance was used as a hammer, where it meant you're bad or you're wrong or you should change because God doesn't like you. And I want to be very clear in saying that I really prefer the actual literal meaning of the word repentance in scripture. So if you're talking about the Hebrew scripture or the Old Testament,

the word that is used most often for repentance, the underlying word would mean to turn with sorrow back to God, to recognize that what we're doing isn't working and we need to return to the way God has called us to be, that God is our God and we are God's people. And then in the Greek, in the Koine Greek, the term would be to change our mind or make amendment to our life. And so those of us who have been around

know, substance use addiction or part of AA groups, the idea of saying, I'm an alcoholic or I have these issues, I'm going to change and I'm going to name that. So to change our mind and amend our life, part of that 12 steps is inherent to what it means to repent. And so in today's world, I think we can look around and say, it would be good for us to repent. It would be good for us to turn back to God's ways.

and to have some sorrow about what's happening and then to literally change our mind. Now, coming up next week on Ash Wednesday, a group of us from the diocese are going to take ashes to go. A part of Ash Wednesday, it's in the title, is ashes. It's a symbol of the day, there's a whole thing, but we won't go into that. You can go into that, you can talk about that and speak about that if you're a scholar and really get into that kind of thing.

For our purposes, we're gonna talk about ashes being a symbol of the day, where we, you'll see people where they put ashes on their forehead and you are dust and to dust you shall return. A symbol of our mortality, a symbol of our need to live with intentionality, what do we want our life to be about? And so ashes to go means we go out into the world with ashes and invite our world to repentance.

Bishop DeDe (04:46.312)
Now we're going to be going to an immigration center in Mattiedale here in Syracuse, calling us all to a pre-pentant heart about how we're thinking about refugees and immigrants. No matter what your opinion may be about all of these things, as people of faith, we are called to care about our neighbor and to advocate for justice in our world. And so we go to these places, not because it's partisan or political, the way that people want to kind of talk about this.

but rather because this is a moral part of our faith. Often I've noticed people want to say, that's too political because they're uncomfortable, because it doesn't agree with them, because they're not sure about something. In this space of speaking about our faith, we're used to things being maybe a little uncomfortable as we learn to articulate them. We need to have a better mind than that. When we're talking about the well-being of our neighbors,

That is our lane. We're talking about the commandments of Jesus. We're talking about what we believe about God. And so calling the world to repentance is a sacred purpose, mission, calling of the church that is unique to the church. We are called like the prophets of old to prophetically stand in the space and say, look, you may have this opinion or that opinion, but how we treat each other as beings of God matters.

And so we're going to go to Maddie Dale and we're going to give out ashes and have a prayer service about this moment in the world where there's so much division and harm against people of color, against refugees and immigrants, and so much division between all of us. We need repentance. We need to change our mind and to stop allowing ourselves to be co-opted into, I'm for this team or I'm for that team, but rather to say I'm for Jesus.

And then we'll go to the federal building in downtown Syracuse, which will be really great because there's a lot of people coming and going, going about their day at their job. And our invitation, again, not condemnation, but invitation to change your mind, to turn with sorrow back to the ways of God, to say, know, how we're living this life, is it working for us? And we need to make an amendment of our lives.

Bishop DeDe (07:08.816)
Ash Wednesday is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to stop and think, how is my life going? Is this what I want my life to be about? Is this how I want to be living? And then to know that that invitation to start over the great do over is open to us, that we can begin again. And whatever your lint and piety, I want to, I mentioned that a minute ago and I want to kind of finish this part with that.

If chocolate is what's getting in the way of you living a life for Jesus, then give it up. But it might be that we need to give up watching particular television movies, or we might need to take on calling people and doing an act of piety where we're giving something back. We may need be called to read scripture every day or pray for the world every day or pray in a new way or try new types of prayer.

And I want to especially say that in this time, often people talk about Lent as a desert time, a time apart where we isolate ourselves. And I really encourage all of the listeners out there that this may be the season of our lives where that isn't helpful to us. Isolation is pandemic right now in the United States and around the world. We're so isolated from one another. So maybe in this season of Lent,

a wonderful act of piety is that once a week or some time period, we get together with other people and have coffee or lunch or have a phone call or invite a friend to be our prayer partner during this time. How might we, in the season of Lent, live actively our faith? And then how might we talk with others about how we're living in our faith?

So Adam, I'm going to invite you in to this conversation as we are moving toward Ash Wednesday and Lent and keeping a holy Lent. What's resonant for you in this conversation?

Adam Eichelberger (09:18.444)
be really honest, Bishop Dee Dee, while I love Ash Wednesday and like for me, somebody who grew up in the Catholic Church and who is now an Episcopalian, I understand the deep roots of this tradition. I've always kind of struggled with it because I cannot give you chapter and verse, it talks about, Jesus talks about like, you know, these people cover themselves in ashes and they make a big deal out of their prayer and they make a big deal out of their fasting.

But when I tell you to pray, I'm telling you to clean your face and don't be on the street corners and go to your room and pray to your father in secret. And then we're like, yeah. And then we have Ash Wednesday and we're almost kind of always felt like I'm doing that. Yeah. And like, I kind of feels like I'm like, now I'm doing the thing that he said not to do. And I struggle with that a little bit. And I guess my kind of my first question is. And again, listener, this conversation between.

Bishop DeDe (09:47.776)
Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (09:57.18)
Mm-hmm. We're out on the street corner. Yep.

Adam Eichelberger (10:11.988)
all of us, but in particular myself and Bishop Deedee, is not meant to give all the answers to everything. It's kind of a way to kind of start the conversation. How do we actually start talking about what Ash Wednesday really means to us as Christians? Because I think that for a lot of people in my life, I know I've talked to people who grew up in church traditions that practiced Ash Wednesday and didn't practice Ash Wednesday, and they don't necessarily, it's not necessarily not understanding the meaning.

Bishop DeDe (10:16.28)
no.

Adam Eichelberger (10:38.584)
but why the heck do you guys do that? Or like, this feels kind of judgy. How do we get around that and have these conversations about what repentance really looks like? Like you talked about this idea of changing our minds.

Bishop DeDe (10:53.14)
Well, first you have to change your minds. think for a long time the church didn't do a good job with this. That just has to be said. When we think about the sinners in a hand of an angry God, the sermon in the 1800s, or you think about decades ago, sinners and outcasts and the exclusionary practice of who's good enough for God.

Adam Eichelberger (10:58.482)
well.

Bishop DeDe (11:22.462)
You know, that's our human sinfulness. whether racism, sexism, ableism, mean, we're very good at judging one another and determining you're not quite as good as me or they're better than them or something along those lines. we, very easily slide into who's better than whom. And so in Ash Wednesday, the calling is to humility and curiosity.

And really to focus in on God, I have to say one of my big issues really with all of Lent is it's kind of can become an egocentric season where it's, know, I'm a sinner and God saved me and me, me, me, and me and again, and still me. You know, it slides away from look what God has done and who God is and kind of gets into this, you know, navel gazing place.

And I think that isn't positive either. know just the passage you're talking about, because we actually read it interestingly on Ash Wednesday. And it's a real conundrum because after you go through the service, you have these ashes on your forehead. Do you wipe them off? You don't wipe them off. And it's a very basic thing, but those of y'all who are listening, you, you know what I'm talking about. it's like, that passage seems to say, you take it off.

But the purpose and intention of the passage, when we look at it, and we know people like this, who make a big show of their piety and are all about, woe is me and I'm this and I'm that. But then you know that they in private and when they finish with the show, don't really care about their neighbor and just kind of move on. And they kind of do it to sort of, you know, sort of check a box or something.

all of us have that hypocrisy in us at times. And we all have moments where we realize that we're not being authentic in our faith. So Ash Wednesday is calling us to authenticity. a great practice actually on Ash Wednesday is to write your obituary. And it sounds a little bit macabre like, my gosh. But when you think about it, the whole point is Ash to ashes, dust to dust. You are mortal. You have this moment to live. What are you going to do with it?

Bishop DeDe (13:42.656)
How are you going to intentionally live your life? How is your life going to reflect the love of Jesus Christ today? And it's a call to authenticity, to being in the moment, to being honest and having integrity. It's a call to humility, and it's a call to a real awareness that our lives are finite. And while we may get caught up in something and kind of feel like we're going to live forever, the reality is we have this moment.

And in this moment to recognize not only how we're living, but then the sort of second part to it, which is even more important, is to understand that we are not God, that God is greater than us, that we are a human in relationship with love divine, all loves excelling. And that humility and curiosity is healing to us, especially in a time in the world.

where humility and curiosity are really put down, are really negatives. To ask questions, to not know everything is vulnerable in this world right now. So with Ash Wednesday and to your question, I think it becomes very important when we look at how we are living our lives and then how we're talking to each other. If we talk to each other, always trying to one up each other, all right, you knew that.

You know, I'm reminded there was a moment when in the diocese, we were doing a program and I announced the program and someone I think a lot of texted me and said, I've already done that. And it was like, you know, and the program was about loving your neighbors yourself. And I thought, you know, none of us have already done that. We all are, we're all right in the middle of it, you know, boo. And we got to get together. So.

So I think Jesus is calling us not to secrecy, but to authenticity. And so in that passage to really lean into that whether you leave the ashes on your forehead or you wipe them off, are you authentically living your faith or are you just trying to go through the motions and do it for show? Because I think when we read the scripture, one of the things I think's

Bishop DeDe (16:04.638)
I actually, we should do every time we read scriptures to say God actually means this. Jesus actually means this. No take backs. Love your neighbor as yourself. Period. No take backs. So I don't get to be hateful. I don't get to make fun of people. I don't get to call people names. I don't get to be derisive. I don't get to say they're useless waste of space because Jesus is serious about this. And when I have said those things, then I repent. I changed my mind and say, okay, Lord,

I forgot that you're God and I'm not.

Adam Eichelberger (16:39.063)
Well, thank God that God is God and we're not.

Bishop DeDe (16:39.552)
Although I forgot French fries would be low calorie, but you go right ahead.

Adam Eichelberger (16:47.599)
I fully sign off on that. No, and it's a good reminder for us that it's chance for us to move past what the assumptions get, the assumptions that get made about us being people out in the world with the ashes on our foreheads. And there's going to be those folks who look at that and they're like, why are they doing that? This feels a little confrontational, if you will. And it's

it's a good opportunity, I'm going to speak for myself to really examine my life, examine my conscience and take a look at what's going on so that when people talk to me about it or ask me about it or whatever, it's a reminder like, I have an opportunity to share with this person, regardless of what my relationship is with them about who God is, about what Jesus has done in my life. And sometimes that's a really easy conversation to have with people that we know or we care about and who are genuinely curious.

And sometimes it's a good reminder about who it is that we are portraying to people like who like we are conveying who Jesus is to other people, especially when I'm in the Wegmans parking lot, and I've got the ashes on my forehead, or I'm in the checkout line at the Wegmans or whatever, and everybody sees the ashes on my head. And maybe they're being a little less than uncharitable. And then I'm making the decision to not be so charitable as well. It's a good reminder for us in in

Bishop DeDe (18:07.104)
Absolutely.

Adam Eichelberger (18:10.191)
I guess the second part of the question about like, do we talk about this is where are the ways maybe this lent specifically as we come up to Ash Wednesday and we're entering into the Lenten season that yeah, you've shared about this motivation that we have in our diocese to ask for repentance, to share that message, not in a judgy way, but in a chance to really realign, you know, like Paul says in Romans,

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's also a really good opportunity for us to share hope. I feel like this lent because I have a, I don't know about you listener, I have this really bad tendency to kind of lean into the negative. I see what's going on in my community, in our state, in our country, in our world. And I'm like, this is never going to get better.

Like this seems like a hill, I'm constantly pushing, we're all constantly pushing the boulder of the hill. Question for you is Bishop, how do we walk in that tension of we need to repent, we need to change our minds, we need to see what's going on around us and enact change, but also how do we talk about this with a sense of hope? Because I don't know about your experience with Lent, but when I was a kid, I was told that this is a season of penitence.

Bishop DeDe (19:28.989)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Eichelberger (19:29.524)
and we're beating ourselves up over our sins and all this kind of stuff. How do we navigate this tension between repentance and hope?

Bishop DeDe (19:39.196)
Well, that's a great question. And listener, I invite you to consider how you'd answer that question. I think we have to repent of the way we've talked about repentance. mean, this idea that repentance is sad and morose and, know, we're going to sit alone in a dark corner and repent. You know, it's like this punishing, punishing, punishing. I think when Jesus calls us to repentance, it is very serious. And there is a piece of it where we're going to feel.

grief or we're going to feel regret or we're going to think, what was me? I'm a man or woman of unclean lips. And that is is certain to be true about when we change our mind or we especially when we're turning with sorrow back to the ways of God, when we really see how our actions have harmed another and we feel sorrow over that. And the hope is

We get a do-over. It's never so broken we can't start again. That the love of God is new every morning. I mean, to be honest, I think the mistake we make in the church is we do try to make this too much sackcloth and ashes in a time when right now people already feel sackcloth and ashes. There's despair. There is seeing what's happening, the divisions in our families, the neighbor versus neighbor, the deep, deep...

a partisan divide in our country. These are grievous, despairing things. And so the hope comes from knowing that God is bigger, that the love of God is stronger. And to look at history and say, you know, there are many moments in history where it was really not a good season, where people were struggling and divided also. And then to see that people of faith found a new way to be, that there was resurrection.

And that forgiveness and restoration are realities. And so the hope comes in knowing that nothing we've done is so bad. God doesn't love us still that nothing we've done is so wrong that we can't repent, change our mind and start over. It may be that there's the brokenness that cannot be healed somewhere, but we are always, always, always able to try again. And so I think the hope and the joy comes.

Bishop DeDe (22:06.748)
in the realizing that God loves you and that God is with you and God delights in you and wants you to feel that hope and that joy. I think in this time, this season of Lent, it may be that we need to talk about it with a new narrative rather than the kind of the tired old tropes of, you know, seriousness that we're seriously hopeful and that we look and say, you know, Friday may be dark, but Sunday's coming.

you know, and to, to really see that, that we have the light of Christ in us and to know that, God still loves us. And then to go out and meet someone and do something positive, to do something helpful. If we're always, if our piety, every Lent is to give something up, this is the year for looking for hope to take something on, to do something, to, you know, call a friend.

to once a week get together and have a hymn sing with people we love or at our churches. To do something that is about praising God for who God is, I think is really a hopeful, life-giving thing to focus on.

Adam Eichelberger (23:16.233)
I agree 100%. This is an interesting segue into we did actually have a new listener question. This one comes from a listener named Zack. Zack is writing in from Virginia. I know that that's a very I know that that's a special place for you, Bishop. And Zack wanted to know Zack has said that for the last 18 months or so they have been attending an Episcopal parish.

Bishop DeDe (23:23.967)
Yay.

Bishop DeDe (23:31.498)
Hey, sec.

Hmm?

Adam Eichelberger (23:43.272)
and are really interested in actually becoming an Episcopalian. Zach mentions that they grew up Jewish and hasn't been celebrating any kind of faith for a while. What does that look like for somebody who wants to become an Episcopalian? And I know that there is a lot that can go into this answer, depending on where it is we come from and the context and our backgrounds. But, you know, in this season of putting on a new mind,

Bishop DeDe (23:47.69)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Bishop DeDe (24:01.361)
and

Adam Eichelberger (24:09.441)
looking at things through new perspective, what advice would you give to Zach or anybody else who may be watching or listening about what that process of becoming an Episcopalian actually looks like?

Bishop DeDe (24:19.882)
Well, thank you for, and thank you for starting that by saying, you know, every situation is different. Zach, I don't know the particularities of your situation. All of us, think, searching for and talking about our faith are seeking to be renewed in our faith. And sometimes that means, you know, a shift in our faith to know that we come from the same ancestor, you know, the Abrahamic religions that our Jewish siblings and as Episcopalians that together we all are seeking.

to honor God and what God is calling us to do and to be as people of faith. And so I wanna make sure that to recognize that great, deep love and respect and just gratitude for my Jewish siblings in this season. And we have people sometimes who are Episcopalians become Jewish because their new season, this is about us all learning to love God. What that really looks like Zach.

in a practical sense, which you probably already are doing, is to talk with the priest there and to go through some, you know, have some time, whether it's classes or conversations with the priest about what does the Episcopal Church believe and what is our polity and our piety and how we practice, and to see if that fits with your life and what your faith is calling out for at this point.

And then, you know, there's baptism and there's adult baptism. And we sometimes people think of babies or children being baptized, but people are baptized at all ages and confirmation. And so you're invited into these sacred rites as they feel right for you. Some people attend church for a very long time before they decide they want to be officially baptized and.

So there's an openness to you following the path that's right for you. I would really encourage you to talk with your priest and to talk with other parishioners and listen to their experiences and see if this is the right fit for you at this moment. And then to take part in the church and really draw close to that community. We all need faith communities. We need community as people. And so I'm really glad, Zach, that you found a church that

Bishop DeDe (26:46.074)
is meeting that for you and blessings on that sacred journey of taking that next faithful step to live out your faith more fully.

Adam Eichelberger (26:57.655)
Absolutely. And on a personal note, Zach, whenever you see or watch this, know that I'm praying for you. We're in the same boat this year, this spring. My family and I are being received into the church. So we're at a fork on that different tang in the fork of the road that but we're all coming to the same place. So please know that I'm praying for you, Zach Bishop. What if anything, or like, what are your kind of final thoughts as we land the plane as it were? Like, where are we? What are your hopes for?

Bishop DeDe (27:05.073)
You

Bishop DeDe (27:14.165)
Yeah.

Adam Eichelberger (27:27.821)
Those of us who are listening who come here every week for Speaking of Faith, what are your hopes for us for this Lenten season?

Bishop DeDe (27:36.224)
It's a great question. again, listener, I, you know, kind of pitch it out to you too, to what, are your hopes for this Lent, Lenten season? I don't know. You know, it's funny growing up, I always knew when it was Ash Wednesday, um, because something would happen and it would be like a process where all of Lent, I felt like I was preparing for something and it would just, just, it kind of naturally happens sometimes that Lent just becomes a season in which I'm preparing for something. And, um,

My hope for all of us is that we'll take it seriously as it were, that we'll look at our lives and say, you know, right now, this isn't going the way I want it to go. I don't like how my life is going. Or I love how my life is going, but I'd like for it to be, I'd like to share that with other people in a more profound way that all of us feel loved and encouraged. And my hope is that where we are today in our faith.

that when we come to that Easter time of celebration, whether it's at the vigil or Sunday morning or whatever your practice is, that we'll feel that we've been transformed by how we've spent this time. That we'll spend these weeks of Easter really practicing, being authentic, drawing closer to God, knowing that we're loved, knowing that God is bigger than the challenges before us.

and that we'll arrive on that moment of celebrating the resurrection, feeling that we're part of it in a way that is more profound and deep than has been before. And so my prayer for all of us is that we'll continue the journey, that we'll continue to talk about our faith, continue to grow in our faith, and that we'll continue to be renewed by our faith every day on this path.

So dear friends, thank you for being part of Speaking of Faith. I'm to hand that baton off to you. Now it's over to you. I invite you and hope that you will talk with someone else about your Lenten season, how you would like this Lent to go. Maybe think about what would help you in your faith to draw more closely to God and to others. And most of all, that you know that you were loved and that you were valued and may you be blessed and be a blessing. And let's keep speaking of our faith that all may know.

Bishop DeDe (29:50.676)
the redeeming love of God. Blessings to you.