Ash Wednesday Scheduling—What’s Your Approach?

[Krista Kutz]

Hello MSP Community!

With Lent coming soon, Ash Wednesday is on my mind—coordinating volunteers and filling positions for extra services.

How do you schedule Ash Wednesday in MSP? Do you set it up as a special yearly service? Do you create a separate Ministry for Ash Distributors, or assign volunteers from existing ministries? (My church asks EMHCs to double up as Ash Distributors, but I'm curious how others do it.)

We'd love to hear how your church uses MSP on Ash Wednesday!

Blessings on the journey ahead,
Krista

Krista M Kutz, MDiv
Rotunda Software

[kathlee...@gmail.com]

At St. Agnes Church the Ash Wednesday services are set up as special yearly services. They are posted along with the month in which they occur, and ministers are allowed to volunteer for the needed ministries as they wish. Sometimes, a reminder or two is needed. Kathleen

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[Andrea Grasse]

Our Ash Wednesday Masses are a part of a regular schedule.  However, I do not fill the positions when creating the schedule.  These Masses are left blank so our volunteers can sign up for a spot.  We also have a position called “Ash Distributor”.  Mostly it’s our Eucharistic Ministers who sign up to distribute ashes, but not 100%. 

 

Andrea Grasse

Director of Music and Liturgy

St. Joseph of the Lakes Catholic Church

171 Elm Street

Lino Lakes, MN 55014

651-784-3015

 

From: using-ministry...@googlegroups.com <using-ministry...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Krista Kutz
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2025 11:25 AM
To: Using Ministry Scheduler Pro <using-ministry...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Using MSP] Ash Wednesday Scheduling—What’s Your Approach?

 

Hello MSP Community!

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[Karen Kranz]

I set Ash Wednesday as a yearly service and make it active in the appropriate month. Our pastors distribute the ashes so the other roles are normal ministries and volunteers can sign up as they wish. Usually I make special services live schedule posts (Maundy Thursday, Passion Sunday) which makes it stand out from the regular worship services.

Blessings, Karen Kranz

Living Springs Lutheran Church

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[richard...@gmail.com]

Thanks

I have it as a yearly service – so I know what I did the previous year.  We use the same Eucharistic Minister ministry for Ash Distribution.  I don’t auto schedule these services as they are on a weekday and people have work schedules.  I may use the “Any special Service” preference but I don’t think my volunteers will use it, so I don’t autoschedule.  When I autoscheduled one year there was a flood of change requests, so I let Eucharistic ministers self-sign up.  For Lectors we manually select the volunteer after a phone conversation.

 

Great program!

-Richard Brehove

St. Margaret Mary, Lomita CA

 

From: using-ministry...@googlegroups.com <using-ministry...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Krista Kutz
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2025 09:25
To: Using Ministry Scheduler Pro <using-ministry...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Using MSP] Ash Wednesday Scheduling—What’s Your Approach?

 

Hello MSP Community!

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[Krista Kutz]

Hi MSP Community!

Just wanted to wish you peace on Ash Wednesday! I hope your services have gone smoothly today, and the Lenten season is a blessing for you and your volunteers. ✝️

In addition to Ash Wednesday liturgies, what other Lenten services are you scheduling in Ministry Scheduler Pro? At my church, we just added Stations of the Cross to MSP, since we need a Reader and a Server each week. This year, I left those positions unfilled and asked volunteers to self-sign-up for Stations when they're available on Fridays.

I’d love to hear what other Lenten services or ministry roles you've included in MSP. Your ideas are always helpful!

Warmly,
Krista Kutz
Rotunda Software

[Lisa Weis]

A blessed Lent to you all.  We use it for Stations of the Cross as well.  I also use it to manually schedule and assign any rehearsals so they have the information in their app and also get the notifications. 

Peace,

Lisa

On Feb 18, 2026, at 5:59 PM, 'Krista Kutz' via Using Ministry Scheduler Pro <using-ministry...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hi MSP Community!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/bf5750e2-6d28-4a2c-8dfa-4bd93e1889f0n%40googlegroups.com.