Ashe or Amen. How about both?

A few months ago we started using the word Asé (Ashe) at the end of our written prayers during worship on Sunday mornings: Amen and Ashe.

After the first Sunday a young child in our church asked what does Ashe mean? Then more folks began asking. That prompted this Pastor’s Porch.

Just like all other aspects of life, religion, and faith, it is about the exploration of God and community much more than it is about concrete answers.  Ashe became a wonderful teaching moment for me as Pastor, the one who began using the term in the first place, and our church.

The word that comes to us as Ashe comes from the African word Asé and has multiple meanings. It stems from the Yoruba language, which originated in Nigeria.

In most western, and or American, churches it is used in the same vein as Amen. In that context both words have the same or similar meaning; may it be, we pray it, and we ask that it be so in our lifetime. Amen and Ashe can also mean a way of expressing affirmation. As in, we need more peace in the world and less war. Let it come to full fruition in our lifetime. Amen and Ashe.

Ashe also carries the meaning of the life force that is within each of us. The connection of all that is in the world through this life force.

In my spirit I began using the word, after hearing it used in black church worship services, to expand our understanding of the world. I believe that too many times we forget about the big wide world that exists outside our tiny little communities.

The world is a vast and diverse place that we live in. Even with the world available and accessible with a click or a scroll, sometimes we tend to live within our own little window of experience.

Ashe and the discussion which followed allowed us the spiritual space to remember that our window of experience is a fraction of both time and space.

Ashe recalls and celebrates the vastness and diversity of the universe along with our connection to one another, across land and sea, across cultures and languages.

One of the aspects of sharing Ashe along with the Amen is that we get to remember that we are all connected by our faith in the Divine, our yearning for connection and peace, and our one shared humanity.

Amen and Ashe open the heart of our collective spirits and allow us to experience a posture of celebration and remembrance. 

The world is vast, even if it feels small within our connections in our local communities.

The world is diverse, even if it seems everyone one around us is the same.

The tapestry of God’s creation is a beautiful work of cosmic art.

Amen and Ashe.

Everything and everyone, when we allow it, aims the eye of our heart towards the Divine Presence in our lives.

Amen and Ashe

Every piece of creation, every human form of expression bears the image of Divine creativity.

Amen and Ashe.