Related stories Weekly Mass in Latin to be celebrated in Belfast

A Co Galway church is allowing parishioners to get their Ash Wednesday blessing - from the comfort of their own car.

Glenamady Church is holding a ‘drive-thru’ service on March 1, where motorists can drive through the church grounds and get their foreheads daubed with ash through their vehicle window.

Parish priest Fr Paddy Mooney is holding the innovative service in response to modern worshippers being too busy for a conventional Mass as “people and families are on the move all the time”.

He hopes that the morning facility will become a popular way for the flock to fit the Lenten tradition into hectic lives.

VOTE: a church is offering a 'drive-thru' Ash Wednesday service. Is that appropriate?https://t.co/TR8mdqXXTO — The Irish News (@irish_news) February 24, 2017

The church is also providing drivers with a box where they can post Lenten petitions – again without having to step out of their car.

“It’s about meeting people where they are,” Fr Mooney told the Irish Catholic newspaper.

“We’re just putting the initiative in front of people to help them think of Lent, as a reminder of it.”

He added that parishioners were likely to welcome the ideas as they are “a great parish with very active people always thinking of new things for the church.”

Glenamady is not the first place of worship to offer fast food-style service for Ash Wednesday, however.

Last year a US church offered a similar facility. Clergy at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, daubed a series of drivers, with Rev Jimmy Abbot saying of the faithful: “We wanted to make it easy for them.”