Happy Easter everyone! I’m soooo far behind on projects – other than trying desperately to finish the thesis from hell (Das Elefant) so I’ve yet to post a “proper” Pascha message, or the not quite finished updated version of the Indie Voices web pages, or any of the interviews I conducted just before lent . . . sigh. Most of my energy has been expended on Das Elefant because I’m determined to finish the damn thing soon. I’m almost there, just a little bit further, I can almost feel that final draft in my hand . . . . aaaargh!

Needless to say we’ve been celebrating here at GCHQ and hope you have been too. We’ve decided to leave the WFP logo and link up for a while longer – as many of you are aware the international food crisis is in full swing. I read in this weekend’s paper that if you give up meat one day a week you’ll make a substantial positive impact on your so called carbon footprint. What is more – cattle take up something like 3 times the amount of grain to produce 1kg of meat as something like chicken. Imagine how many people that grain could feed.

I’ve got a stack of ideas for posts sitting on my desk – a few inspired by the recent musings of Fr. Tessone, others by my mulling over ideas surrounding myth and imagery. Hopefully some of those will take shape, and find their way here for you to join in the conversation soon.

In the meantime – I beg your patience as I’m distracted of late. Anyone wanting to chat about the late antique emergence of Marian cult & devotion is welcome.

A week or so ago a bushel of wheat reached a record $20 on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. This is 5 times the price of a year ago when a bushel of wheat cost only $4. Wheat is a core agricultural product. Its spiralling cost means that basic food stuffs like bread, cakes, and even your office lunch are now more expensive than they were just a year ago. Wheat is also a key ingredient in animal feed – this means that meat is also more expensive now than it was twelve months ago.

Last month the UN World Food Programme raised the alarm when it announced that unless it can raise an extra $500 million to compensate for spiralling food prices, they may have to ration their aid to individuals, or worse – cut back on sorely needed projects.

In the week before the beginning of Lent I made some calls to the WFP and learned that for the money I spend each week on meat in our grocery order, our household can feed five families! Talk about having one’s conscience pricked! In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus warns those of us who “have” – “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry” (Lk. 6.24-5). Lent is the time that we refresh our memory as to our responsibility to others, and seek new ways of being charitable. While I know that for most regular readers this is Eastertide, I invite us all to take a moment and donate your lunch money, or your weekly Starbucks bill, or meat order to the World Food Program by clicking here now.

Lent began as communal act of solidarity with those preparing to be initiated into the Christian life through baptism. During the period leading up to the eve of Pascha, converts were intensively instructed in the teachings and spirituality of the Christian assembly. When Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, in prayer, fasting, and eventually testing by the Adversary, he prepared for his ministry of teaching, and signs (Lk. . Likewise, the 40 year sojourn of Israel in the desert shaped, and prepared them for a life of fidelity and success. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, reminds us that in our spiritual life (read: in life generally) we ought to train to win, or risk the possibility of being disqualified (1Cor 9.24-7).

Our Christian life is an active life. We do not merely assent to a set of ideas and doctrines. Instead we strive to live the teaching and example of Christ. One of the functions of our sacramental communities is to support and encourage one another in our training. Individually and collectively we try new ways of living the teaching. Some work, and are passed on to others. Some fail, and we confidently rely upon our brothers and sisters to help us get up off of the ground and get back into the race. Today, more than ever before in history, it is so easy to forget, or to become careless in our discipline to achieve theosis. We no longer live in “Christian” societies, where a moderate discipline of prayer, service, and study is the norm. Now we are challenged to train in a more conscientious manner.

We ought not to approach Lent, therefore, with an attitude of suffering and grovelling. Rather, we ought to approach it with joy, as a gift of our tradition, a built in annual intensive refresher course in Christian life.

I know that most of the regulars here follow the western liturgical cycle rather than the eastern. As you are coming to the end of Lent, and me and my community are getting ready to enter it, I’m curious – what has been your individual lenten discipline, and what did you gain from it, and the time of preparation for Pascha?

Moreover, Im curious about what other OC/IC communities did together during Lent: did you support a charity, have study days, or maybe a concerted effort at outreach? If so how did this contribute to your sense of benefitting from Lent? Did you notice a change in your community because of this project?

My little fellowhsip here in London has chosen to support the World Food Program during Lent. Recently there has been a great deal of reporting on how the rising affluence of some areas like China, in addition to the rising cost of fuel, and the push for turning food crops into fuel, combines to make aid projects more difficult. We’re going to donate the money we would have spent on meat during the Great Fast (were we not “fasting”) to the WFP. In my household we dont spend much on meat to start with, but a quick calculation is astonishing how many families that will feed in areas of the greatest need. I’ll be posting more on this over the course of the season.