Below is a blurb I thought I submitted for my parish newsletter (but had a mistake in the email address and didn’t know it in time), followed by a portion of an email I sent to a priest on the topic.
ìFor I desire mercy, and not sacrificeÖ.î
(Hosea 6:6 WEB)
Question: Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Answer: I renounce them.
(BCP pg. 302)
Lent is upon us. It is still the custom of the Eastern Orthodox faithful to observe a vegan Lent. Although western Christian observances have been all over the map throughout history, we still observe Shrove Tuesday as the day (symbolically, at least) to use up our eggs, fat, and milk before our Lenten fast begins. The following is a quote from New Adventís website:
“Ö St. Gregory writing to St. Augustine of England laid down the rule, ‘We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.’ This decision was afterwards enshrined in the ‘Corpus Juris’, and must be regarded as the common law of the Church.”
Second, the massive, brutally inhumane seal slaughter is about to begin again ìin full swingî in Canada. Mainstream animal welfare groups, including the HSUS are calling for action around the world, to encourage the Canadian government to stop subsidizing the mass killing. (A majority of Canadians are against the seal slaughter, too.) Please take a look at the ìanimal bulletin boardî in the Memorial Hall, or visit sites like www.protectseals.org or www.harpseals.org to learn about the issue, and find out how you can help. Thanks, if you do!
I got involved with a small group that started Veg4Lent a few years ago in the UK. And for two years, I sent out letters to the churches in this diocese, and last year an email (to save money on postage). The first year, I sent Veg4Lent’s “long letter”, which [my rector] thought was offensive. (And I thought, if he thinks it’s offensive, what about all the priests in the diocese who don’t know me? I felt like I must be the most-hated person for doing that, which worried me just months before GC2003, and hoping to get Resolution D016 submitted/adopted — and having no luck with the Chicago deputation agreeing to cosponsor it.) So the next year I wrote my own letter, which [my rector] said sounded fine. And last year I wrote a different one, so people wouldn’t hear the same thing each year. Basically, I was asking churches to post a flier, and include some mention of giving up meat for Lent among all the other ideas churches sometimes suggest. And I gave them the URL for http://www.veg4lent.org . It isn’t the kind of thing I expect to get any feedback about, so I just threw it out to the wind. But I know final destination of the wind in [the town where my church is located]. In three years, there was no mention here about that or any Lenten observance at all. (Well [my curate] said something last year, but in passing. And I was probably the only one who caught it.) I’ve decided we are just too Protestant to worry very much about Lent. But on Maundy Thursday, one of our members brought me a newsletter from her mother’s church in a south suburb, which pretty much quoted everything from my email. My first reaction was “how nice to see someone actually did something with the email I sent!”. My second reaction was “how disappointing it is that no one even brings up the topic here at my own parish!”
Until a week or so ago, I always felt apologetic about bringing up the topic of giving up meat for Lent (because I’m an “animal person” with an agenda). But a question was raised on the HoB/D list about the meaning of Shrove Tuesday, and the history behind pancake dinners, etc. The answers weren’t just about using up meat and fat, but about using up eggs and dairy before Lent started. We hear about pancake dinners as if they were a quaint practice, and carry on the tradition as a social event, but not as if we have to make any changes in our food supplies. Even though I knew the Orthodox Church observes a vegan Lent, and was impressed that some churches have extensive recipes on their websites, that doesn’t help me in the Episcopal Church. I didn’t know, until I read some of those posts, that it was also the custom for western Christians to observe a vegan Lent, and I’ve been an Episcopalian for almost 36 years, coming from an Anglo-Catholic parish, no less!
So I Googled, and found this webpage http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm , which tells how customs were never uniform, and became less stringent over time, especially since the mid-1700’s I think I read. I really shouldn’t feel apologetic about wanting to promote something that has been an expectation of the Church — even if they did it for other reasons. The quote (from the webpage above) gave me quite a historic precedent, even though times have changed.
“Ö St. Gregory writing to St. Augustine of England laid down the rule, ‘We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.’ This decision was afterwards enshrined in the ‘Corpus Juris’, and must be regarded as the common law of the Church.”
The World Council of Churches, and the Episcopal Peace & Justice ministries advocate a “Lenten Fast from Violence”, asking people to cut out one form of violence from their lives during Lent — like violent movies, violent video games, etc. I, of course, take a “Lenten Fast from Violence” quite literally, since not only is the slaughter itself violent, but so are the accepted agricultural practices of disposing of male chicks, debeaking, de-toe-ing, forced moulting (depriving hens of food and water for up to 2 weeks to jump-start their last egg-laying cycle before they’re spent) de-horning, castrating, and who knows what all, without anesthetic. And then there is the inhumane life-long captivity of animals crowded in cages or pens too small to even turn around, which is the situation for about 95% of our livestock raised out-of-sight in factory farms.
http://www.factoryfarming.com/gallery/photos_egg.htm
http://www.freefarmanimals.org/gallery/index_vc.htm
http://www.factoryfarming.com/gallery/photos_gestation.htm
(They are truly slaves.)
Here’s last year’s resource for Week 2 “Fasting from Violence Against Creation” (The title sounds good….)
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/dov.nsf/35197f524cfab7f0c1256c1e004e58e8/88fedfe1d5295b9ec1256fd300352f8c?OpenDocument&TableRow=6.1#6.
Here’s a little info on the Orthodox fast: http://www2.wcc-coe.org/dov.nsf/35197f524cfab7f0c1256c1e004e58e8/88fedfe1d5295b9ec1256fd300352f8c?OpenDocument&TableRow=6.6#6.
ENS article from last year: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_58326_ENG_HTM.htm
Nothing too impressive for an “animal person-of-faith”, except for the concept.
Whether as an act of penitence, an act of self-denial from a “privilege” people are otherwise unwilling to deny themselves, an act of withholding financial support from industries who (legally, and without outcry from the public) abuse over 10 billion animals in this country each year, or an act of charity/compassion/mercy/non-violence, I think getting back to St. Gregory’s statement warrants at least some passing mention in our churches these days, before people decide to dutifully give up chocolate again, for lack of something more “life-giving” (as opposed to “life-taking”). Certainly things are worse now for the farmed animals, and on a much larger scale, than in his day. But on the other hand, no one who chooses to “boycott cruelty for Lent” has to go hungry, anymore, with all the vegetarian choices we have available now. So I don’t understand why anything pertaining to animals is such a “taboo topic” — whether it’s Lent, or “Stewardship of Creation”, or even the church-based environmentalists who ignore animal agriculture as a major contributor to green house gases, water pollution, or deforestation of rainforests. I guess animals are the “elephant in the living room” (if I understand the expression correctly).
