CARY, N.C. — No one will forget the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone charted new waters together.

It’s the same feeling Senior Pastor Wolfgang Herz-Lane got leading his flock in a new direction. The leader of the Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary faced an uncertain future.

Herz-Lane said what made the changes so real was finding out the state's patient zero was in his congregation.

From then until the present, he believes parishioners still feel most at home in the pews of the church.

“I think people understand on some deep level that they have a need for God even if they are not always acting on it,” Herz-Lane said on Feb. 22, which marked Ash Wednesday.

It’s why Herz-Lane believes the day is so important. 

“That’s one of the gifts of Ash Wednesday. (We) put before us our own mortality,” he said.

Many who receive the mark of the cross — either on foot or drive-thru — try to see the beauty of life by acknowledging we all face death.

“I think you can say that everything has changed because of the pandemic, right?” he said.

Ashes to go can be a matter of convenience, but some prefer joining a full service as people to come together on this day.

That changed on March 3, 2020.

Gov. Roy Cooper took the stage at a news conference to tell the state: “Today we have confirmed our first presumptive positive results for the new coronavirus in North Carolina."

The next day, Herz-Lane learned who the first case was.

“I got a phone call from a parishioner telling me, 'The news you’ve heard that the first person in North Carolina has tested positive? Yeah, that’s me.’ Of course, that was a big shock,” Herz-Lane said.

The state health department reported a church member who traveled to Washington state was exposed to COVID-19 at a long-term care facility as it was experiencing an outbreak.

“God gave us an intellect. God gave us an understanding. We are called to take precautions to deal with this disease like we would any other disease," he said.

Masking, washing hands and social distancing was the new way of life in 2020.

“I remember we sent out a letter the very next day because it was important that we let the congregation know that this had happened," he said.

Instead of giving up wine or chocolates for Lent, congregants were forced to give up one another’s company.

“And then — boom! There was an empty building for the next few months after that," Herz-Lane said.

Places of worship, schools and other common meeting grounds closed. As life as we know it shut down, livestream-only worship services began.

“For the better part of a year we kept live-streaming and only being online,” Herz-Lane said.

Ash marking would only be offered by drive-thru in 2021.

“People stayed in their car. We wore masks and gloves. Instead of making the sign of the cross with our finger on people’s forehead, we used a very long Q-Tip,” Herz-Lane said.

All the suggested safety precautions were taken. By 2022, in-person options returned.

“Fellowship is really important. The personal connection cannot be replaced by online worship,” he said.

Thinking of the past while living in the present is a novel thought to Herz-Lane. He points to a photo in his office of him shaking hands with Pope Francis.

“I got to meet the pope. I was on a delegation to Rome,” he said.

That was long before the pandemic. He said it’s surreal to think there was a time when the first thought was not the novel coronavirus. When the calendar arrived at this holy observation this year, he couldn’t help but reflect on what they had collectively overcome.

“It was a situation that we hadn’t had before, so we had to make it up on the fly,” he said.

Feb. 22 made Herz-Lane nostalgic about all the luxuries society may take for granted. A mass of people gathered in the sanctuary late the night of Ash Wednesday, one-by-one patiently waiting to accept the sacred ritual.

“(It) meant a whole lot to people that they couldn’t come. In fact, we had people that when we were finally ready to welcome them back, who came and broke out into tears because it was their first time in 2 or 3 years," he said.

They come this year for a time-honored period of cleansing, either traditionally or on four wheels.

“Ash Wednesday reminds us that God loves us even in our brokenness," he said.