St. Luke’s Episcopal Church brings the Blessing of the Bicycles to Fort Collins this Labor Day weekend.
On a weekend of festive celebration in our community, everyone is welcome to join in this inspiring and fun event.
This year, the Blessing of the Bicycles comes to Fort Collins at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2000 Stover Street, on Sunday, September 4 at 9:00 a.m. as part of the Grace in the Garden outdoor worship service.
“God’s presence can be felt in the joy of riding. It is also an opportunity to realize the spiritual dimension of traveling our life journey with God,” according to the Rev. Lupton Abshire, Rector of St. Luke’s. Participants will be blessed while riding past the entrance to the chapel garden.
You are encouraged to bring any of a variety of “-cycles,” including bicycles, tricycles, unicycles, tandems and scooters, and to ride them to church, if possible. Dress is casual: come as you are, or in your Tour de Fat costume.
The blessing service will include prayers and reading of biblical passages, and riders will be showered with droplets of holy water. In addition, prayers will be invited for those who have been injured while riding and for those who have lost their lives.
The Coffee Stop food truck will be at St. Luke's for all three services.
The Blessing of the Bicycles is a tradition in which riders of bicycles, tricycles, unicycles, tandems and scooters receive a blessing for safety for the coming season. The first mass blessing of bicycles was held in 1999 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Since its beginning, the ceremony has been intentionally welcoming to everyone in the community, focusing on rider safety and wellbeing. The popularity of blessing bicycles has spread across the country from New York to Los Angeles and even to Australia.