Pastors from around the county will be coming together to celebrate the season of Lent.

Rev. Reid McCormick of St. Thomas Episcopal Church said the church and the Butler County Ministerial Association will be doing the Lenten Noonday prayers and luncheon on Wednesday through the end of February into the month of March.

“As a liturgical church, the Episcopal church sets apart Lent,” McCormick said. “Not that other denominations don’t, we just do a special liturgy on Ash Wednesday. It’s an effort to a have a community worship setting and a chance for other churches to join in a short time of prayer and follow up with a fellowship and food.”

These Lenten prayers have been going on for many years, McCormick said. It’s a way to hear different people preach and reach out to the community.

“Its one thing once a month to talk about helping people and working with the schools or working with the police department, but it’s another thing to worship together and to hear different people preach,” McCormick said. “I could line up preachers from the Episcopal Church, but I don’t think that would be very fun. We just want to invite people from other denominations to join us.”

Each preacher will be advised to read from the daily readings from the Bible, but McCormick said it was not necessary.

After the prayers, there will be fellowship at the church where the Women of St. Thomas will provide lunch for all community members.

“When I interviewed for this church, one of the things St. Thomas is adamant about is you will have to be willing to involved with the community,” McCormick said. “In a small town like this, it’s important, and everybody knows everybody. This is an opportunity for St. Thomas to invite the outside community in during a time that they might not be having a worship service. We are stronger as a community as Christians than individual churches.”

The schedule is as follows:

February 29: Rev. Lane Simmons from First Assembly of God

March 7: Rev. Harold Bordages from First United Methodist of Georgiana

March 14: Rev. Marc Gibbs

March 21: Rev. Danny Dean from Spring Creek Baptist Church

March 28: Rev. Reid McCormick from St. Thomas Episcopal Church