Dear Sir,
Every January something pops through my letterbox to bring a shaft of light into these dark days. The CofE authorities send me a little advertising puff about the annual Lent Course provided by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. For years this has given me a laugh, although, to use a phrase of my mother’s, it’s too daft to laugh at. All the usual politically-correct nostrums cast in the Noddy language with which the church patronises and torments us to death. But suddenly this booklet isn’t funny anymore.
As we all know, Lent commemorates the 40 days and 40 nights which Jesus spent alone in the wilderness before He began his ministry. It always used to be customary for Christians to fast from luxuries by giving up our favourite foods and drinks. We did this to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to practice self-denial if only for a while, to repent of our misdoings and turn to God in prayer. Not these days. The church authorities have changed the meaning of Lent, abandoned its religious basis and now this course asks us instead: ‘Could you give up something this Lent that would save electricity, plastic, waste or water?’
